Activists hail Sierra Leone child marriage ban, urge action on FGM

Hundreds of thousands of girls are married before turning 18 in the West African nation, where a persistently patriarchal society puts women at risk of multiple forms of gender-based violence. Sierra Leone has some of the highest rates of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality in the world. In a major step forward, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act criminalises marrying girls below 18 with jail terms of at least 15 years or a fine of more than $2,000. It also bans men...