LUSAKA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Thursday said the country saw a 10 percent drop in child marriages last year because of various interventions put in place to tackle the vice.
Lungu said the reduction was due to government's interventions which were within the framework of the African Union (AU) Youth Program in collaboration with the United Nations Women Program.
"Further, as the continental champions of the Campaign to End Child Marriage, my government continues to attach great importance to raising awareness on the negative impact of this scourge at individual, community and national levels," the Zambian leader said when he addressed ambassadors accredited to the country at State House.
The Zambian leader reaffirmed the government's commitment to the global campaign to end child marriage and ensured that young women have equal access to the opportunities they deserve.
Zambia, he said, has joined efforts of the international community aimed at investing in the youth in order to tap into the potential of young people on the African continent as the majority of people on the continent are below the age of 25.
Zambia has over the years been experiencing the problem of child marriages involving girls below the age of 18, especially in rural parts of the southern African nation.
The country has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world, with 42 percent of women aged 20 to 24 years married before 18.
