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Eight out of 14 teenage girls from Tampaala community in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region who became victims of child marriage during last school vacation have been rescued.

The arrest of two of the abetting parents and further threats of action against all perpetrators made them return the girls, who were either forced or abducted.

Two of the victims have already been impregnated by their husbands, another two have also fled down south after the rescue, and one of the cases is in court while, the rest have returned to school.

The girls were rescued through joint efforts by ActionAid Ghana, the Jirapa police and the Chief of Tampaala, Naa Mwinsaama Bondegbee II.

Madam Abiba Nibaradun, End Child Marriage Campaign Programme Officer, ActionAid, said her interactions with the victims showed they were either forced or tricked by young men into early marriage.

She said it implied that the girls were either raped or defiled during the period they lived with the men; and would have stayed in the marriage against their will for the rest of their lives.

Madam Nibaradun said ActionAid had created the awareness that practicing child marriage was a violation of the rights of the victims.

“It is time for action, it is to enforce the law and make perpetrators of child marriage to face the full rigorous of the law,” she emphasised.

She called on other chiefs and community elders to emulate the chief of Tampaala by taking similar actions against perpetrators of the negative practice to protect girls.

In another development, Kantunane Dabuo, the Landlord of Tampaala who appeared not to see anything wrong with the practice and is alleged to be in bed with one of the perpetrators whose case is in court, has issued a threat to the Chief to either withdraw the case from court or face being diskinned as the Chief of Tampaala.

But Naa Bondegbee who is very committed to end child marriage in his community, said he was not perturbed by the empty threats.

He said he was prepared to fight anyone who wanted to destroy the future of teenage girls in his community through legal means if even it would cost him his life.