With a devastating drought worsening an already horrendous humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, parents are increasingly compelled to "sell" young daughters into marriage to pay off debt or buy food, the UN said Tuesday.
In the drought-hit Herat and Baghdis provinces of Afghanistan, the UN children's agency estimates that at least 161 children between the ages of one month and 16 years were "sold" over just a four-month period.
"The situation of children is dire in Afghanistan," UNICEF spokeswoman Alison Parker told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking as an international conference on Afghanistan got underway in the Swiss city, Parker said the children in the July to October survey were "either being betrothed, married or ... sold because their parents are in debt."
Six of the 161 affected children were boys, she said, adding that "there is an increase in child forced labour."