A local NGO has identified 169 cases of pregnancy among minors aged 13 to 17 in four locations in the Lubero territory of northern Kivu, including the capital.
as reported from Kinshasa, Sonia Rolley
In the eastern part of Congo-Kinshasa, this study is disturbing. If we sum up this entire population, the proportion is one pregnant minor per 1000 inhabitants. This situation is all the more worrying because in the eyes of Congolese law it is to have sex with a girl under 18 years of age is considered rape. But moods are rare.
“What benefits all these cases is first and foremost impunity, because there are many places like Akassou where there is no experience of trial for sexual relations with minors. And their fines are known, but they are not worried. This impunity means that many do not really understand that it is a problem to have sex with minors “, explains Robert Kakule, coordinator for Speed DRC, The NGO that conducted the study.
“But who takes care of the maternity costs?”
This situation covers many realities, he adds: “There are parents who do not report, because they tell themselves, when I go to tell the police that my 14, 16, 17 year old daughter was impregnated by such, we can arrest the alleged perpetrator, but who will take care of the maternity costs? Who will buy clothes for the child then? “
According to him, containment is also a cause of the phenomenon. “There are many young people who went to school and therefore stayed at home. Unfortunately, there are many pregnancies like this, and many young girls have not resumed the way to schoolSince there is no real debate about sexuality, there is no such awareness, he concludes.
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