The has been a registered upsurge in gender-based violence, and forced and early marriages in Rumbek despite its prohibition by customary laws and a public order which was passed in 2022 by the Lakes State Revitalized Transitional Legislative Assembly.
Asunta Mayek, a victim of forced and early marriage in Rumbek, told Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that the practice is archaic and negatively impacts girls.
“A 15-year-old girl is too young to get married and cannot do the duties of a wife. A lady has to be married when she is 18 years old and older,” she says. “I was one of the victims of an early and forced marriage. I got married off at the age of 14 and did not know how to behave like a wife because I was too young.”
“Life was difficult and I had difficult relations with the people I lived with,” Mayek adds.
She said forced marriages are not good and said she is glad that a law has been put in place to criminalize forced and early marriages.
“At the time I got married, I was 14 years old in my primary eight in Ager Gum Primary School in 2010,” Mayek states. “It was not right for me to be married off and I should have been allowed to complete my studies first.”
The coordinator of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) in Lakes State, Daniel Laat Kon, acknowledges the rise in forced and early marriages in the state and says his organization is working to create awareness about the matter.
“We are working together as a cluster to protect girls and also report cases of gender-based violence in the state,” he explains.
Daniel Jur Marial, the head of the police’s gender and child protection unit in Rumbek Central County says that they recently handled a case about a 16-year-old girl who had been impregnated and forced to get married.
“These cases are very common in our Lakes State. We have to educate the people to desist from the practice of early marriage because it is illegal according to our laws,” he said. “Last year, I received 25 cases of forced marriages and 16 cases of early pregnancies of girls under 15 years of age. In 2024 we have not yet received any report of forced marriages however we have seen cases of early marriages.”
He said the cases mostly come from the counties of Rumbek East, Wulu, Rumbek North, Cueibet, and Rumbek Central.
“Rumbek East County now is a big county and is now leading Lakes State in cases of forced and early marriages and followed by Wulu County from where we received 13 cases, and Rumbek North County with 10 cases and Cueibet County with 5 cases,” Jur adds.
For her part, the minister of gender and child welfare in Lakes State, Angelina Ding Mario, says that her ministry has received 3 cases of forced and early marriages and that they voided them using customary laws and Section 39 of the public order against the practice.
“If you give a girl to somebody the law will not allow you to force her into marriage and even if you want to take someone’s girl while she is still young, you will not be allowed by law. When there is a case, it can be referred to court,” she enlightens. “My advice to our daughters in Lakes State is to cooperate with and obey their parents because their studies are very important as a girl child. They need to continue with their studies, respect their parents, and at the same time respect themselves to obtain what they want to achieve.”
Minister Ding reveals that one time a girl walked into her office and reported that her parents wanted to force her into a marriage.
“As the ministry concerned with child welfare, we used the law and involved the judiciary to handle the case and we talked to the parents. I convinced the girl’s father and maternal uncle not to marry off that girl and she is now back in school,” she narrates. “We are creating awareness about early and forced marriages and even gender-based violence.”