(ANSA) – ROME, JUN 29 – With the drought the rate of girls and minors forced into forced marriage and female genital mutilation has reached an alarming level in the Horn of Africa: UNICEF denounced this in a statement. According to an analysis by the UN Children’s Fund, in the regions of Ethiopia most affected by drought, early marriage has on average more than doubled within a year and the number of children at risk of dropping out of school in Ethiopia. , Kenya and Somalia has tripled in three months, from 1.1 to 3.3 million.
Over 1.8 million children in the region are in need of treatment for severe acute malnutrition that threatens their lives, with 213,000 people at risk of famine in Somalia. In Ethiopia, in the Region of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of the South, cases of female genital mutilation increased by 27 percent between January and April 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
In Somaliland, about a quarter of people surveyed reported a rise in gender-based violence in January, with early marriage, domestic violence and sexual violence increasing by 50 percent in several areas. Another humanitarian needs assessment in Puntland in February found that child marriage accounts for 59 percent of reported cases, while female genital mutilation rates as high as 98 percent in 14 of Kenya’s 23 drought-stricken counties.
To the problem of severe drought was added that of the war in Ukraine, with a tragic impact for the whole region: only Somalia, in fact, imported 92% of the wheat from Russia and Ukraine. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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