Three women arrested for baby’s alleged FGM death

Three women were charged in Gambia over the death of a one-month-old girl who had undergone female genital mutilation, the police said, in the first such case since the country stopped short of reversing a ban on the practice last year, reports ABC News. The West African nation banned female genital cutting in 2015, but the country was rocked by a renewed debate about the practice last year following the first prosecutions of female cutters. It was the first time the practice – also known as female circumcision and outlawed in many nations – was publicly discussed. Eventually, the Gambian Parliament upheld the ban, but many say the practice continues in secrecy. The three women were charged under the Women’s (Amendment) Act, Gambian police said. One woman is facing life imprisonment, and the other two were charged as accomplices. The UN estimates that about 75% of women in Gambia have been subjected as young girls to the procedure, which includes partial or full removal of a girl’s external genitalia. More than 200m women and girls across the world are survivors of FGM, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN estimates. The procedure, typically performed by older women or traditional community practitioners, is often done with tools such as razor blades and can cause serious bleeding, death and complications later in life, including in childbirth. The chair of the National Human Rights Commission, Emmanuel Daniel Joof, called the incident ‘a national wake-up call’ and added: ‘Our task now is clear: enforce it (the law) fully and fairly, without fear or favour.’