12-year-old Yemeni child bride dies after giving birth

A 12-YEAR-OLD Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labour to give birth, a local human rights organisation said.

Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 225 kilometres west of the capital San’a.

Child marriages are widespread in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, where tribal customs dominate society. More than a quarter of the country’s females marry before age 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry.