Officials in Burkina Faso say about 50 girls have been hospitalised after undergoing female genital mutilation. According to BBC Afrique, some of the girls are as young as four years.
Police have arrested two 60-year-old women who carried out the exercise which was botched putting the lives of the girls in danger.
Parents of some of the girls have also been arrested. The circumcisions were carried out this month in the Kaya area, north of the capital, Ouagadougou.
Burkina Faso’s minister of women’s affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, was reported by the BBC as saying that the total number of girls circumcised could be higher.
The victims have been admitted to the Kaya Regional Hospital and Chiphra Protestant Hospital in Ouagadougou.
Doctors attending to them say many of them have serious complications as a result of the cutting of their genitals.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is illegal in many African countries including Burkina Faso. But it is difficult to stop the practice usually done in hiding in some communities.
In Burkina Faso, offenders face jail term of up to three years. There have been several campaigns by rights activists for and end to the practice.
Source: Africafeeds.com
