A 13-year-old girl has gone to police in northeastern Ethiopia with a case against her family and prospective husband to avoid a forced marriage, Ethiopia’s news agency ENA reported. Sarah Mohamed, who lives in the Dessie district of the ethnic Amhara Wollo region, lodged a complaint with police, saying she had repeatedly told her family she wished to continue her schooling and not be wed. Sarah’s mother and grandmother, Fite Muhamed and Merima Yimam, stressed that she had been promised in marriage to a man since she was seven, ENA reported. The two women said that the unidentified fianc had sent them money and jewellery for the past five years and they could not call off the wedding. However the girl’s father, Mohamed Seyid, who is divorced from Sarah’s mother, opposed the marriage on the grounds that she had not yet reached her majority, which is 18 in Ethiopia. Police sources said that Sarah and her family finally agreed to interrupt the wedding process, while the husband to be, who did not respond to a summons, could be compelled to present himself “by force” if necessary, ENA said. – AFP