Source: BBC News
The shocking rise of sexual abuse of young girls in northern Uganda was revealed when it was reported that in the wake of the pandemic there was a more than four-fold increase in those aged 10-14 becoming pregnant. BBC Africa Eye has been looking at why perpetrators are getting away with the crime.
The heavily pregnant girl – no more than 12 years old – looks down at her hands as the local council chairman asks about her latest visit to the doctor.
It is the sort of question a family member should be asking, but this is no normal pregnancy.
The girl lives on her own in a small home, in Kitgum district, and is expected to give birth any day.
Her parents’ cassava business failed, so they returned to their village to find money for the family.
“She was left here because here is a little bit nearer to the schools,” chairman Obita David Livingstone says.
“But the unfortunate part, the next room here is where people drink. That alone has exposed her to a lot of challenges.”
No-one knows who the father is, or what happened.
