President lungu

Zambian President Blames Poverty Level for Child Marriages

By solomon2day
On 31/12/2018
In News

President Edgar Lungu of Zamibia has blamed the increasing rate of child marriages to the poverty level and practices of leaders in the rural areas.

President Lungu made this disclosure during an interaction with some Traditional Chiefs at the State House.

"The challenge we still have is poverty levels especially in rural areas, some traditional leaders still tend to think that marrying off

girls early will bring money in the family but they are forgetting that they are actually denying them chances of bettering their lives

after withdrawing them from school," the President stated.

In their reaction the Traditional Chiefs urged President Lungu to Lobby the African Union to initiate policies that would bring an end toEarly Child Marriages and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The four chiefs led by Chief Chamuka VI , include Chief Chikwanda, Chief Madzimawe and Chieftainess Muweza ahev been to and recently Malawi and Nigeria on consultative and dialogue meetings.

" We recommend that the President who is also the African Union (AU) Chairperson On Ending Child Marriages in Africa should lobby the AU

and partners to scale up resources in support of the implementation of African Traditional Leaders' action plan to address child marriages and gender equality at all levels, the Chiefs stated at a briefing in the State House, they said.

Poverty Zambia President Edgar Lungu Child Marriage