Mozambique reunited 150 minors who were victims of early marriages in three months

Mozambican authorities have reunited 150 minors who were victims of premature marriages or placed under “alternative protection” with their families in the first three months of the year, according to official data accessed by Lusa this Thursday.

The government report states that these juvenile reunions are concentrated in two provinces, Zambezia (58) in the center and Inhambane (41) in the south.

“However, in this context, assistance to 137 girls affected by premature unions reintegrated into school is allocated from the plan in 201,” the document says, in this case the province of Manica, in the center, leads the way, with 118 cases.

The Coalition to End Premature Marriage (CECAP) said last week that the situation with underage marriages “remains alarming” in Mozambique despite changes in legislation, with one such case being recorded in the country every 12 minutes.

“We have data that every 12 minutes in Mozambique a girl under the age of 18 gets married,” said Santos Simione, CECAP secretary, during a press conference in Maputo with the international organization Girls Not Brides (GNB). ), which ended the visit to the country on May 17.

These two institutions are involved in promoting a project to end premature unionization in Mozambique. This problem, as coalition president Feroza Zacarias acknowledges, requires updated data.

“In numerical terms, we, as a coalition and as a country, do not have this. The data we have relates to 2015, before the adoption of the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Premature Associations,” he admitted.

This reality is also affected by humanitarian crises caused by the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado in the north of the country, or by climate change, he said.

In October 2019, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi promulgated and ordered the publication of the Law to Prevent and Combat Premature Unions, approved in July of that year by Parliament, eliminating marriages involving persons under 18 years of age and making it punishable by imprisonment. Punishment of up to 12 years in prison for an adult who marries a minor.

This penalty also applies to adults involved in the preparation of an engagement and to any adult who agrees to live in a union arranged by others when they know that the partner is under 18 years of age, but there are also penalties for government officials. , religious leaders and traditional leaders who perform marriages involving minors.

Despite this legal framework, the secretary of the Mozambican coalition stated that the seriousness of the problem remains: “Our overall understanding, based on the work we are doing, is that despite the passage of this law, the problem of premature unions continues to be a concern. “

CECAP also advocated for the creation of specialized programs to support and protect girls and women in conflict zones.

“We must ensure that all international organizations working in emergency situations [em Cabo Delgado] apply the law,” Santos Simione said.

According to Mozambican authorities, the country continues to have a high rate of premature unions, with almost half of girls getting married before the age of 18.