A 12-year-old Yemeni girl, who was forced into marriage, has died during a difficult delivery in which her baby also died, a children's rights organization said yesterday.

"The child, Fawziya Abdullah Youssef, died on Friday September 11 in western Yemen at the age of 12 due to a complicated delivery," the Yemeni Organization for Childhood Protection (Seyaj) said.

The organization said its volunteers had confirmed that doctors had been unable to save Fawziya's life after she suffered complications from the delivery.

Raised in an impoverished family with a father suffering from kidney failure, Fawziya was forced to drop out of school and married off at the age of 11. She got pregnant a year later, the group said.

Source: China Daily