SIERRA LEONE INTRODUCES NEW LAW BANNING CHILD MARRIAGE.

Sierra Leone has introduced a new law banning child marriage with much fanfare at a ceremony organized by First Lady Fatima Bio in the capital, Freetown.
Invited guests, including first ladies from Cape Verde and Namibia, watched as her husband President Julius Maada Bio signed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act into law.

Anybody now involved in the marriage of a girl aged under the age of 18 will be jailed for at least 15 years or fined around $4,000 or both. University student Khadijatu Barrie, whose sister was married off at 14, told the BBC that she welcomed the ban but wished it had come in to save her younger sibling.

Sierra Leone is a patriarchal society and it is common for a father to give his daughter’s hand in marriage forcibly.