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    • As Afghanistan slides into poverty, girls at increased risk of being sold into child marriages, UNICEF says

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    TORONTO -

    Months after the Taliban captured Kabul on Aug. 15, aid organizations are sounding the alarm over Afghanistan sliding back into increased levels of poverty and hunger with young girls reportedly being sold into child marriages so their families can survive.

    The United Nations says 22 per cent of the 38 million inhabitants of Afghanistan are already near famine and another 36 per cent are facing acute food insecurity because they cannot afford food.

    In a , UNICEF said it was “deeply concerned†by reports that child marriage in Afghanistan is on the rise, as families sell their young girls to provide food.

    “We have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20-days-old up for future marriage in return for a dowry,†the statement reads.

    UNICEF said that even prior to theTaliban takeover, partners of the organization registered 183 child marriages and 10 cases of selling children from 2018 to 2019 in the provinces of Herat and Baghdis alone. The children were reportedly between the ages of six months and 17.

    UNICEF estimates that 28 per cent of Afghan women aged 15 to 49 years old were married before the age of 18.

    “As most teenage girls are still not allowed to go back to school, the risk of child marriage is now even higher. Education is often the best protection against negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labour,†the statement continues.

    Although marrying off children under the age of 15 is illegal in Afghanistan, it is a common practice, particularly in more rural areas. Nearly 10 per cent of Afghan girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year due to little to no access to contraception or reproductive health services, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

    Complications from childbirth due to their underdeveloped bodies, lack of healthcare and their inability to consent to sex means pregnancy-related mortality rates for girls aged 15 to 19 are more than double the rate than for women aged 20 to 24, the UNFPA says.

    The COVID-19 pandemic, the Taliban takeover and the oncoming winter has made it extremely difficult for families to survive. Nearly 677,000 people have been displaced in 2021 due to fighting, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Many of them live in tents or makeshift shelters in internal displacement camps.

    International funding, which once made up a large portion of the Afghan government budget, has dried up as much of the world does not recognize the Taliban’s rule. In addition, Afghanistan’s economy is estimated to have shrunk 40 per cent in the last three months.

    The UN Development Program, the World Health Organization and UNICEF are the three main aid organizations that donors are funnelling money through to avoid funds ending up in the Taliban’s coffers.

    The UN World Food Program, which is providing direct cash aid and food to families, provided aid to 9 million people in 2020. That number has risen to almost 14 million in 2021, with the agency saying it will need $220 million a month to reach 23 million people in 2022, according to The Associated Press.

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    With files from The Associated Press and CNN

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