Support Peace Development Initiative Organisation (SPIDO), Executive Director, Wodcan Lazarus, on Friday disclosed that South Sudan has recorded more than 1,500 child marriages in five months.
SPIDO, in its report, said the teenagers have either been married off or impregnated since April.
The report released by SPIDO found alarming rates of early child marriages, pregnancies and prostitution in the three Eastern, Central and Western Equatoria states respectively.
The report uncovers widespread incidents of sexual-related offences, mostly rape, attempted rape, sexual harassment and murder of children.
The organisation said it documented at least 1,535 cases of child marriages and teenage pregnancies in the Equatoria region since South Sudan shut down schools in mid-March as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Western Equatoria takes the lead in cases of teenage marriage and pregnancies, with 1,182 cases followed by Eastern Equatoria with 318 cases, and Central Equatoria with 35 cases respectively.
“In this short period, over 1,500 girls have been married off in three regions. This tells that the situation could be worse in other regions where child marriage was rampant before the COVID-19 lockdown,” Lazarus said.
South Sudan’s legal age of marriage is 18, but the country has long before now grappled with high rates of early and forced marriages.
The civil society group warned that continued closure of schools and a biting economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis could lead to more child marriages.
“Sustenance could be making parents force their girls into marriages with the hope of getting dowry because in many South Sudanese cultures, girls are looked at as sources of wealth,” Lazarus said.
The report calls for urgent measures to prevent and mitigate child abuses.
It also called for the provision of medical care for child abuse survivors and increased advocacy for human rights.
The report further recommends the establishment of a juvenile justice legal aid scheme in the east African country.