The United Nations denounced on Saturday that three dozen girls were subjected to female genital mutilation in a single day in the state of Jubalandi, in southern Somalia.
The mutilations took place in Kismayu, the organization says without giving further details.
The conviction – Europa Press recalls – comes after the Ifrah Foundation, which fights to eradicate female genital mutilation in Somalia, where it has been active since 2013, and in the Horn of Africa, denounced on Wednesday that at least 29 girls were mutilated in the camp for internally displaced persons 25 kilometers from Kismayu.
“All the victims were too young for informed consent” for a practice that “caused them severe bleeding,” complained Niyi Ojuolape, the representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Somalia.
“The agency strongly condemns what happened,” warns that the drought and humanitarian crisis in Somalia “increases the risk for Somali girls due to this practice,” which is prevalent throughout much of the country.
Niyi Ojuolape called on the Somali government to “take all necessary steps to ensure that those responsible for this incident take their responsibility to deter others and protect the rights of women and girls”.
Female genital mutilation – which consists of the total or partial removal of genitals, with serious physical, psychological and sexual consequences, and can even lead to death – is still a common practice in three dozen countries, mainly in Africa, and it is estimated that each year puts three million girls and young people at risk and that about 200 million women and girls have already been subjected to the practice.
Somalia is one of about 30 countries around the world where FGM is still practiced, with a high prevalence and lack of a law prohibiting a practice ancestrally rooted in communities.
Since 2014, Portugal has had a system for identifying FGM-affected women living in the national territory, with an estimated 6,500 circumcised women living in the national territory, mostly from Guinea-Bissau.
Source: DN
