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.

“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.