AFRICA - In East Africa nine out of ten girls suffer physical or psychological abuse African Child Policy Forum denounces

Rome (Fides Service) - The United Nations information agency IRIN reported findings of the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) with regard to child abuse in East Africa: 9 out of ten girls suffer physical, sexual or psychological abuse mainly on the part of people closest to them, family members first of all.
The survey on experience in childhood and adolescence involved 1,500 young women aged 18 to 24 in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Abuse starts at home: with regard to abuse by the mother the answer was 99% among Kenyan women, 94% among the Ugandans and 84% among the Ethiopian women. Half the Ugandan women said they had suffered sexual abuse, in Ethiopia the percentage dropped to 29.7% and in Kenya to 26.3. Only 1.5% of the victims reported the abuse in Ethiopia and 4% in Uganda.
ACPF says that in East Africa abuse is most frequent from the closest persons. In Ethiopia half the women are forced into marriage before they are 18 and in Uganda thousands of girls are abducted to serve as soldiers or slaves. (AP) (18/5/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:21; Parole:236)