Ghana: Outrage over 63-year-old healer marrying 12. The girl is now under police protection and the investigation is ongoing.
The healer defends the marriage. Child marriage is officially banned in Ghana – as in many other African countries. One in three young African women was married before they reached the legal marriage age of 18, according to Unicef. Girls in poor, rural areas in particular are forced into child marriages, but in urban Accra, a fairly modern society, child marriage is rare.