Enlarge image
Scene of sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in Ethiopia (2021)
Photo: J Countess / Getty Images
In the Horn of Africa, an "alarming number" of girls are being forced into child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) as a result of a severe hunger crisis.
This was announced by the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, on Wednesday.
According to UNICEF, families in the Horn of Africa have to make difficult decisions to survive.
More than 1.8 million children in the region are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition.
More and more parents or carers are marrying off girls to secure dowries.
With the money they want to feed the rest of the family, feed one less mouth or help the bride to enter a better-off household.
Girls as young as 12 are married to men more than five times their age, said Andy Brooks, UNICEF's child protection adviser for East and Southern Africa.
Cases of domestic and sexual violence have also increased because of the famine.
Millions of children drop out of school
In the regions of Ethiopia most affected by the drought, the number of child marriages has more than doubled within a year, according to Unicef.
The number of children at risk of dropping out of school due to the impact of the crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has tripled to 3.3 million in three months.
Girls who do not go to school are at greater risk, including FGM and child marriage.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.
West Africa is also on the verge of its worst food crisis in a decade.
According to the UN, around 60 million people are affected.
The main reasons for the decline in grain production on the continent are climate-related droughts and floods, regional conflicts, the economic impact of the corona pandemic and Russia's grain blockade due to the Ukraine war.
Somalia alone recently imported 92 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.