“You will marry this man”

South Sudanese women leaders and activists have urged the government and parents to encourage girls to attend school, in a bid to slash the rising number schools dropouts among girls, who are sometimes married off as young as 12.

Elisabeth Aguet Deng was among the many girls who were forced into wedlock. She married at the age of 16 years in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. She said she explained that she was in school and wanted to finish her education, but her uncles beat her and her mother and made her to marry a 73-year-old man.

Similarly, 18-year-old Mary Ayen Chol, described how she was forced into marriage: “The man went to my uncles and paid a dowry of 80 cows. I resisted but they threatened me. They said, ‘if you want your siblings to be taken care of, you will marry this man’. I said he is too old for me,” she explained. “They beat me so badly. They also beat my mother because she was against the marriage.”

Speaking to The Niles, Shara Ajith, chairperson for the South Sudanese Women Association in Juba stressed that the high level of school girl dropouts is caused by forced marriage, entrenching the pattern of high female illiteracy. “We are calling upon the government and states to scale up efforts to combat the widespread child marriage among teenagers.”

The Director for Gender in the Ministry of Gender Child and Social Development in the government of Jonglei, Anna Adut Bol blamed the government failing to enact laws to prevent child and forced marriages in South Sudan, especially among the nomadic communities.

“We are committed to end child marriage but the insecurity at the country side has increased child marriage because people are staying in IDPs camps without school. Sometimes child marriage happens in villages without government accessibility,” she added.

Atoc Rual Majok, another victim of forced marriage said that no value was put on her education: “My father refused to let me go to school. He said it is a waste of money to educate a girl. He said marriage will bring me respect in the community. Now I have grown up and I know that this is not true. I cannot get work to support my children, and I see girls who have some education, get jobs.”


Early and forced marriage poses a number of serious risks for girls, including disrupting or curtailing education, exposure to violence and abuse, and the health risk of childbirth.

Failure to combat child marriage is also likely to have serious implications for the future development of South Sudan, said Rezaul Karim, the country representative for BRAC, a Bangladeshi organisation working for the promotion of girl-child education in South Sudan. “Child marriage frequently interrupts girls’ education – or deprives them of it altogether,” he said, adding that this dents the chances of the community and country as a whole.

The Governor of Imatong State, Nartiso Loluke said forced marriage was rampant in the Imatong’s nomadic communities. “Marriage of schools girls under 18 years is a grave crime and a violation of the child’s rights,” said the governor.

Mary Apai, Former Minister for Gender, Child and Social Development in Central Equatoria State, blamed institutional malpractice for failing to clamp down on the trend. “We have several cases in court where by the culprits are brought to justice, but in most cases the accused are defended by the parents and weak legal system,” she said.