Girl Attempts Suicide Over Forced Marriage

A 14-year-old girl has been rescued from hanging herself, after escaping from her parents who wanted to force her into marriage.

The poor girl, now in the custody of the man who rescued her, was said to have run away from her parents at Bimbilla in the Northern Region. She was found in a bush at Atebubu in the Brong-Ahafo Region last Sunday, by a yam farmer who took her to the office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

Confirming the incident to the Times on telephone, the Atebubu District Director of CHRAJ, Ephraim Kwaku De Souza, said the office was liaising with the Department of Social Welfare or a chief in the town to take charge of the girl while investigations continued.

According to Mr. De Souza, the girl looked pale and desperate, wanting to hang herself when she was found with a rope in the bush.

Though the girl, said to be in school, had expressed her displeasure to the marriage, he said her parents ignored that and decided to force her to marry an old man, which compelled her to escape.

Mr. De Souza said the CHRAJ had stepped up efforts to locate the parents of the girl for the necessary action to be taken.