Around 50 girls are being treated in hospital in Burkina Faso after botched circumcisions, or female genital mutilation (FGM), a minister says.

Not all girls who underwent the circumcision have been traced, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, said.

Two 60-year-old women, along with the parents of some of the girls, have been arrested.

FGM has been illegal in Burkina Faso since 1996.

Offenders face up to three years in prison.

About three-quarters of women and girls in Burkina Faso have undergone circumcision, but only 9% favour the practice, according to UN children agency Unicef.

• Africa Live: More on this and others from the continent
• My quarrel with a proud FGM cutter
• UK schoolgirls ‘pressured into FGM’

The circumcisions took place in the Kaya area, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, between 4 and 6 September.

Some of the victims are as young as four years, authorities say.

A dozen girls have been admitted to the Kaya Regional Hospital and 38 to the Chiphra Protestant Hospital in the capital.

Some of the girls had suffered serious complications, Dr Dieudonne Ouedraogo told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45551615

Since becoming an MP, much of my time has been spent campaigning to prevent child abuse and to protect women and girls from violence. I have been outspoken against child marriage, which is often forced marriage and has devastating consequences. Unicef estimates there are 12 million child marriages in the world every year — that is 23 girls every minute. Such marriages can result in early pregnancy, social isolation, interrupted schooling, limited career opportunities and increased risk of domestic violence.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/allowing-children-to-marry-brings-shame-on-britain-chvpfh05r

Girls are being pressured to undergo female genital mutilation(FGM) in British playgrounds, a survivor has warned amid an international crackdown on the practice.

Dr Leyla Hussein, who underwent the procedure when she was seven years old in Somalia, said pressure was being put on children by their peers as well as relatives.

“Some of my clients are 19-year-old girls who were children or were born in this country, and they will say they were pressured in a playground in a school in London to go and have it done,” she added, urging people in affected communities to confront the idea of FGM as a “tradition”.

“We really have to be forceful in protecting children, and unfortunately I will be upsetting people but I personally don’t care if I’m going to upset some community leader….we cannot tiptoe around it.”

Officers and social workers have been stationed at British and American airports, and on the Eurostar this week as part of a transatlantic operation to prevent families taking children abroad for FGM and help survivors.

An estimated 500 people were spoken to at Heathrow Airport on Thursday alone after arriving on flights from countries where the practice is prevalent, and similar operations are taking place at Gatwick, Manchester and Luton.

The operation, codenamed Limelight, has also been carried out at New York’s JFK Airiport after American authorities signed a “proclamation of interagency support” for FGM investigations with the UK.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fgm-uk-female-genital-mutilation-police-prosecutions-operation-airport-us-proclamation-a8526386.html