Mozambique: Second highest rate of child marriages in southern Africa – NGO

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Mozambique: Second highest rate of child marriages in southern Africa – NGO

8:55 CAT | 22 Mar 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Mozambique has the second highest rate of early marriages in southern Africa, with 48% of girls marrying before the age of 18 and 14% before the age of 15, according to a report by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Oxfam.

“In Mozambique, the northern and central regions have the highest rates of early marriages, between 57% and 62%, with Nampula and Cabo Delgado being the provinces where the problem is greatest,” according to the document, consulted by Lusa on Friday.

According to Oxfam, Mozambique is still the tenth country in the world and the seventh in Africa with the highest rates of these unions, pointing to factors such as poverty, natural disasters and armed insurgency in the north of the country as causes.

The NGO also explains that 36.1% of girls living in urban areas marry before the age of 18 and 11.5% before the age of 15, while in rural areas 55.7% marry before the age of 18 and 16.1% before the age of 15.

Mozambique’s government figures indicate that the authorities helped 1,099 minors who were victims of early marriages to return to their families or to be placed in “alternative protection” in 2024.

Of this total, Nampula province alone, in northern Mozambique, had 331 children removed from these marriages, followed by Manica and Zambézia, both in the centre, with 176 and 175, respectively, according to a report.

Since October 2019, Mozambique has had the Law on Preventing and Combating Premature Unions in force, which eliminates marital unions involving people under the age of 18, punishing adults who marry a child with a prison sentence of up to 12 years and a fine of up to two years.

The penalty also applies to adults who take part in the engagement preparations and to any adult who agrees to live in a union arranged by other people when they know that their partner is under 18.

Penalties are also envisaged for civil servants, religious leaders and traditional leaders who celebrate marriages involving children under 18, in which case the civil servant will be sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

Source: Lusa