10-year-old Somali girl dies after female genital mutilation
A 10-year-old girl
has bled to death after undergoing female genital mutilation in Somalia, an
activist said, a rare confirmed death in the country with the world's highest
rate of the practice.
The girl died in a
hospital on Monday, two days after her mother took her to a traditional
circumciser in a remote village outside Dhusamareb town in central Galmudug
state, Hawa Aden Mohamed with the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and
Development said in a statement.
"The circumciser is suspected to cut an important vein in the course of the operation," Mohamed said.
Picture source
About 98 percent of
women and girls in the Horn of Africa nation undergo female genital mutilation,
according to the United Nations. While Somalia's constitution prohibits the
practice, Mohamed said no laws have been enacted to ensure that those who
perform the circumcisions are punished.
Lawmakers are
"afraid of losing their political clout among the all-powerful
conservative traditional and religious groups bent at retaining the
practice," she said.
Health workers have
warned against the risks of the practice which in most cases the external
genitalia is removed and the vagina is sewn almost closed.
Despite campaigns in
Somalia against the practice it is "clouded in secrecy, so reducing it has
been a massive challenge," said Brendan Wynne with the New York-based
Donor Direct Action, which connects women's activists worldwide.
Over 200 million
women and girls in 30 countries across three continents have experienced
genital mutilation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this
year, calling it a "gross violation of the human rights of women and
girls."
The U.N. Population
Fund projects that the estimated 3.9 million girls subjected to genital cutting
every year will rise to 4.6 million by 2030 due to expected population growth
unless urgent action is taken.
The Associated PressSource
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