Thanks to COVID-19, threatening situations that put young girls at risk are either being heightened, or even created. Girls in Africa are experiencing a conglomerate of what are being called “shadow pandemics”, including rape, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, and early pregnancy.

The total number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in Africa is at approximately 1.2 million cases, with over 26k deaths, according to numbers released by Africa Union’s Center for Disease Control. However, there have been significantly low levels of testing all over African nations, meaning that the actual infection rate could be much higher.

Due to the lockdown, schools all over the world have closed, with the majority uncertain when they’re going to resume classes. Young girls have been left exposed to sexual violence from family and community members, and there have been many cases of lockdown poverty forcing minors into transactional sex in order to provide food and water.

According to the World Health Organization, only 6 out of 39 countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa have decided to fully re-open their schools. Child rights groups say that schools were safe spaces for children, meaning that their inevitable closure is largely to blame for the fallout in young girls’ safety. The World Bank and UN have recognized that closing schools was necessary, however they say that it is reversing progress in gender equality that took decades to make.

Plan International and the African Child Policy Forum published a report last Wednesday which estimated that over 120 million girls in the area were forced to stay home after schools closed, meaning their risk of falling victim to abuse or sexual assault rapidly increased.

Similar to some countries in Asia, — including India — African nations have reported dramatic spikes in child marriages. The economic hardship brought on by the lockdown has made multiple families resort to marrying off their under-age daughters in order to receive forgoing payments, some of these girls undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM).

While many organizations are working to decrease child marriages in the region, some governments are taking steps backwards, especially Somalia. In the East African nation, there is no law that establishes a minimum age for marriage, and earlier this month, a bill introduced to parliament would have legalized marriage at puberty — as early as 10 years old in some cases.

Another horrific situation that is on the rise in Africa is that of teen pregnancies. In Kenya alone, one county reported around 4,000 teen pregnancies between March and June 2020. Other countries experiencing a similar crisis include Malawi and Ethiopia, raising fears that some of these girls may never go back to school.

“There are serious concerns about the shadow pandemics that have come with COVID-19 such as sexual and gender-based violence and teen pregnancies. There has to be a recognition that some of the gains made in terms of delivering for girls and their rights have been eroded, and if it is not deliberately addressed in a concerted manner, we will not be fit for purpose in a post-COVID world.”

Kate Maina-Vorley, country director for Plan International in Kenya

In past decades, there has been a strong gender-equality movement across Africa, with activists and international organizations pushing for equal access to basic rights, however many girls in Africa still face numerous hardships in securing these rights, ranging from access to education and health services, to alarming rates of forced marriage and early pregnancies.

Not only are these girls born into webs of vulnerability, there are also disproportionate rates of girls out of school as opposed to young boys in the same situation. According to the United Nations, 23% of girls in Africa do not attend primary school, against 19% of boys. The World Bank has also reported that almost 4 in 10 girls are married before their 18th birthday.

In terms of early pregnancies around the world, Africa tops the list, with the estimated adolescent birth rate in Central and West Africa situated at 115 births per every 1,000 girls between 15 and 19. The global rate is 44 births.

While there is no exact data regarding how many girls have been abused, countries like Tunisia, South Africa, Malawi, Somalia, Kenya, Niger, and Uganda have all reported surges in calls to helplines. Kenya alone saw a 10 fold increase in calls to a national helpline funded by the department of gender affairs; 86 calls were made in February, and in June there were 1,108, the majority reporting child rape.

According to multiple health experts, early marriages and pregnancies can and will curb a girl’s progression in several areas, including education, health, and employment later in life. Having kids at such a young age also undermines the development of her children, with it being pretty unlikely the child survives past five.

There are also large-scale economic implications from teen pregnancies and early marriages, due to the fact that African countries lose roughly $60 billion in lifetime earnings, which is more than what the continent receives in aid annually.

---

Sources: