UNICEF, estimates that more than 650 million women alive today were married before the age of 18. In 2016, 5.6 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides. 38% of young women in sub-Saharan Africa married before age of 18. Early and Forced marriages remain a major concern in Cameroon and according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family; at least 41% of Cameroon teenage girls are forced into marriage, usually with much older men. The situation is more preoccupying in the Far Northern Regions where about 80% of women marry prematurely.

Marriage before the age of 18  is a human rights violation. Despite laws against it, the harmful practice remains widespread and can lead to a lifetime of suffering. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are most likely going to stop school and have high chances of experiencing domestic violence.Young teenage girls are more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s, and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month of life. Indigenous girls are more vulnerable due to the weight of culture and tradition.

Response

• FFAC Reinforced the capacities of 50 traditional and religious leaders in Santa subdivision on the negative consequences of Early and Forced marriages in April 2012 .A solidarity fund was established at the end of the workshop to support girl’s education in the subdivision in which more than 100 girls benefited from it.
• A consultation meeting was held with 20 young indigenous girls to discuss their educational and careers aspiration for the future in Yaounde the 11th of October 2018. The objective was to make girls to have a fixed orientation for their future.
• Training of trainers of 20 young indigenous girls on the negative consequences of early and forced marriages .The objective to carry out restitution in their different communities to train other girls and preach to end child marriage.
• Capacity building of 100 young children internally displaced  at the lycee de koutaba in the West region of Cameroon on the Impact of the Socio-political crises on Girls and Child marriages on the 11th of October 2019 .The objective was to identify the causes and consequences of Early and Forced marriages and also to proposed strategies to end child marriage .