Flooding in Cameroon may result in child-brides-in-waiting

The North and Far North of Cameroon is currently facing one of the worst flood disasters the area has ever known. Rising flood waters have left an estimated 67,000 people displaced. This flooding has destroyed homes, cattle, crops, and has disrupted entire households.

In the Far North, Plan has been providing displaced families with emergency assistance. But a far more insidious future problem awaits: child marriage.

It takes nearly five hours or over 155 miles to travel from the district capital of Maroua to Kai-Kai, a village close to the Chad border. However, the last 31 miles consists of a dirt road that is half-submerged by the rising flood waters. Families from surrounding villages are camped out inside of a Catholic primary school. Overcrowded, squalid conditions have made worse by continuous rainfall. With the worsening conditions, we are concerned that many girls will soon be in danger of becoming child brides. 


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