Chadian child bride 'kidnap' case postponed

The appeal case of a Chadian child bride who has accused her husband, a man in his 50s, of kidnap and torture was postponed in N'Djamena Wednesday, her lawyer told AFP.

Hawariya Mahamat Abdoulaye, 16, says she fled her husband in 2016 after marrying him years earlier when she was just 11 years old.

Abdoulaye claims she was re-captured near the Chad-Sudan border, tied up and beaten, later going to live with her family where she filed a legal suit against her husband, Haroun Hissein.

The case went to trial in the capital N'Djamena in 2017 but Hissein was found not guilty of abduction, with the case dismissed on a legal technicality.

"The court of appeal in N'Djamena has postponed the trial to Wednesday, October 31," said one of her lawyers, Midaye Guerimbaye, citing a strike by civil servants.

Chad has one of the highest rates of under-age marriage in Africa.