Child marriage in Mozambique: Desperate to escape

Carlota Domingos sits on a four-legged wooden stool in front of a one room mud house. The house clings to the side of a dry, rocky hill, which separates Mozambique and the landlocked kingdom of Swaziland.

Sixteen-year-old Domingos is eight months pregnant and divorced. When her husband lost his job and she became pregnant, his family pushed her out of their home, saying they could not afford to care for her any longer.

"I did not see this coming. People have stopped talking to me. I have even lost my friends," Domingos told Al Jazeera in a clear soft voice, her eyes cast down at her feet. 


In this border town of Namaacha and across this Portuguese-speaking southern African country of some 25 million people the practice of child marriage is not uncommon.

According to the United Nation's Children Education Fund (Unicef), nearly one in two women aged between 20 and 24 were married or in a union before they were 18 years old.

The country has the tenth highest rate of child marriage in the world. In Mozambique, the legal age of marriage is 18, but where parents or guardians have given consent, the age is 16.