The mother of an alleged child bride has left a safe house in South Sudan to travel to be with her daughter after discovering the teenager is pregnant.
Deborah Kuir Yach made headlines last year when she opposed a competition for her daughter’s hand in marriage, insisting that her child Athiak Dau Riak was only 14. Fear of reprisals from her husband and family forced her to leave her home in the capital, Juba, and go into hiding.
After eight months living in a shelter under the protection of a local NGO, the 41-year-old mother of seven has travelled to Nairobi where Athiak is believed to be staying with relatives.
Despite the threats she faced after her stance became widely known, Yach said she is determined to be with her daughter – who is due to give birth this month – in keeping with the cultural tradition of the Dinka, one of the largest ethnic groups in South Sudan.
“Now that Athiak is pregnant, I can’t do anything about the marriage. Let her be with her husband. They will decide together whether she can go back to school later on,” said Yach. “[But] according to our Dinka tradition, a daughter must give birth to her first child in her mother’s home – that’s why I am going to Kenya.”
Yach does not know if Athiak will be allowed to stay with her but said she would visit her to guide her daughter into motherhood, and help take care of the baby.
Although she was perceived as a victim of child marriage by those who condemned the wedding, Athiak sided with family members who orchestrated it.
“Athiak disagrees with what I have done. She says that I brought shame to the family,” Yach told the Guardian before she left South Sudan. “But I explained to her that I didn’t want to stay where I am mistreated. Athiak wants to protect the image of the family but I will not go back, I am following my truth and my right,” she said, adding that she wants a divorce. “I just found out that he brought another wife home.”
In June 2024 Athiak travelled to Nairobi shortly after her traditional wedding to Chol Marol Deng, a South Sudanese man in his 40s who lives in Canada. A court case opened the same month by South Sudanese lawyer Josephine Adhet Deng against Yach’s husband, Dau Riak Magany, accusing him of arranging the marriage of a minor – a crime under South Sudan’s laws – failed to progress. Attempts by Deng to have Athiak brought back from Kenya were rejected by South Sudan’s public prosecution office in October 2024.
Yach has travelled to Kenya with her three younger daughters in the hope that she can protect them from a similar fate to Athiak. Her brother, Athiak’s uncle, who also publicly opposed the marriage, is supporting her.
“My niece is now pregnant and I’m not seeing this case going anywhere,” said Daniel Chol Yach, who lives in Canada. “I’ve tried tirelessly to alert the Canadian authorities but nothing has happened so far. Chol has been travelling freely and he impregnated Athiak, even though the marriage is not complete, and although he had said he would let her go back to school.” While the customary part of the wedding was celebrated in Juba, the marriage is not legally finalised.
“Now I want to make sure that my sister, Deborah, and my nieces have a better future. I’m renting a place for them in Nairobi. The kids will go to school there, and that will protect them from what happened to Athiak. With good education, they’ll be able to know what is best for their future.”
Yach hopes to put her daughters in school in Kenya and, eventually, to join her brother in Canada to build a better life for herself and her family. “The reason I leave my country is the future of my children. If I stayed in South Sudan, maybe they will be married young, too.”
