WUNRN
FIGO - International Federation of
Gynecology & Obstetrics
SOMALIA - FGM OF GIRLS SHOWS
DRAMATIC DECREASE TO ONLY l/4 IN NORTH - UNICEF
18 April 2013 - Only one quarter of northern Somali girls under the age
of 15 have suffered female
genital mutilation (FGM), new data from Unicef shows - demonstrating a
significant reduction in the country's FGM occurrence rates, which was
previously seen practised almost universally.
The findings show that 25 per cent of girls in northern regions of Somalia aged
one to 14 currently undergo FGM compared to a figure of 99 per cent for adult
women in those regions.
Unicef's survey follows a global ban on the practice, unanimously approved by
the UN General Assembly in December last year.
Twenty-eight communities in Somaliland have reportedly stopped carrying out
FGM. Sheema Sen Gupta, Unicef's chief of child protection in Somalia, said the
organisation hopes that as many as 60 communities will have banned the practice
by 2014.
In comments reported by TrustLaw, Ms Gupta said: "We have to continue and
expand the work that we are doing. If, five years later, we find that this
trend is reflected in the next age group, 15 to 25 years old, then we know that
it is sustained."
_____________________________________________________________