The Ashanti Regional Police Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) has rescued two under-aged girls from forced marriage.

The pair are both senior high school (SHS) students and the police intervention followed a tip-off.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Susanna Dery, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Commander of the Unit, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Kumasi, said the girls are northerners.

She said they moved in to save one of the victims a day before she was to be married off in Kumasi.

The other had just been married and sent to Accra, but they managed to trace, free and get her back to school.

DSP Dery said their parents had been arrested and were assisting in police investigations.

She indicated that DOVVSU was 'very vigilant' and would not relent in its effort to deal with all cases of child abuse to give more protection to children.

She advised parents to avoid giving out or forcing under-age girls into early marriages and said that could jeopardize their future.

On child maintenance, she said the Unit, this year alone, had recorded more than 3, 000 cases of non-maintenance cases, and reminded parents to live up to their responsibility to their children.