RABAT, March 22 (Xinhua) -- A total of 25,514 girls under the legal age of 18 got married in 2018, Mohamed Aujjar, Morrocan minister of justice, said Friday in Rabat.

Speaking at a national meeting on the underage marriage, Aujjar revealed that marriage contracts involving minors reached nine percent of the total marriage contracts concluded in 2018.

He noted that the number decreased from 35,031 marriages involving minors, which accounted for 13 percent of the total marriages in the same year.

However, he stressed the spread of this phenomenon remains "important and frightening."