By Rogers Wanambwa 

KIU, Main Campus – Around 2,372 school-going girls have conceived and another 128 got married during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to authorities in Kitgum, Ngora, Kyegegwa, Kasese and Lyantonde districts.

Additionally, Police records show that 110 girls were defiled in Kitgum, Kiryandongo, Sembabule, Kayunga, Lyantonde and Ntungamo districts.

 A recent report on a news bulletin on NBS TV showed that over 60 girls have been impregnated in Naigobya Trading Centre, Bukuuma district in Luuka district alone.

The same report quotes the Luuka district probation officer, Mwajjuma Naigaga as saying that she receives between 30 and 40 cases of teenage pregnancies.

In the report, Naigaga says that one of the cases involved a headteacher who was alleged to have impregnated two school girls.

A United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report in April warned about the risk the COVID-19 pandemic caused to school girls warning that they faced suffering child marriages and unintended pregnancies among other factors.

Significant levels of lockdown-related disruption over 6 months could leave 47 million women in low- and middle-income countries unable to use modern contraceptives, leading to a projected 7 million additional unintended pregnancies.

Picture credit: NBS TV