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	Female genital mutilation is “one of the worst forms of violence against women” by UNFPA, UN Women, UNICEF, news agencies   11 Aug. 2025   Outrage as baby dies after genital mutilation in The Gambia, Thomas Naadi. (BBC News)   The death of a one-month-old baby girl who was the victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia has sparked widespread outrage.   The baby was rushed to a hospital in the capital, Banjul, after she developed severe bleeding, but was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.   Although an autopsy is still being conducted to establish the cause of her death, many people have linked it to FGM, or female circumcision, a cultural practice outlawed in the West African state.   "Culture is no excuse, tradition is no shield, this is violence, pure and simple," a leading non-governmental organisation, Women In Leadership and Liberation (WILL), said in a statement.   Two women had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the baby's death, police said.   The MP for the Kombo North District where the incident happened emphasised the need to protect children from harmful practices that rob them of their health, dignity, and life.   "The loss of this innocent child must not be forgotten. Let it mark a turning-point and a moment for our nation to renew its unwavering commitment to protecting every child's right to life, safety, and dignity," Abdoulie Ceesay said.   FGM is the deliberate cutting or removal of a female's external genitalia.   The most frequently cited reasons for carrying it out are social acceptance, religious beliefs, misconceptions about hygiene, a means of preserving a girl or woman's virginity, making her "marriageable", and enhancing male sexual pleasure.   The Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest rates of FGM, with 73% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the procedure, with many doing so before the age of six years.   WILL founder Fatou Baldeh told the BBC that there was an increase in FGM procedures being performed on babies in The Gambia.   "Parents feel that if they cut their girls when they're babies, they heal quicker, but also, because of the law, they feel that if they perform it at such a young age, it's much easier to disguise, so that people don't know," she said.   FGM has been outlawed in The Gambia since 2015, with fines and jail terms of up to three years for perpetrators, and life sentences if a girl dies as a result. However, there have only been two prosecutions and one conviction, in 2023.   A strong lobby group has emerged to demand the decriminalisation of FGM, but legislation aimed at repealing the ban was voted down in parliament last year.   FGM is banned in more than 70 countries globally but continues to be practised particularly in Africa's Muslim-majority countries, such as The Gambia.   http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6200g5d4jlo   28 July 2025   President of Sierra Leone urged to ban FGM as court rules it tantamount to torture, by Sarah Johnson for Guardian News.   The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice has ordered the West African country to criminalise female genital mutilation after hearing the case of a woman brutally forced to undergo the practice.   As Kadijatu Balaima Allieu walked to a neighbour’s house in her village in Sierra Leone, she had no idea that what was about to happen would alter the course of her life for ever. It was a beautiful September morning in 2016 and Allieu, 28 at the time, had gone to resolve a dispute she had with another woman, who belonged to the Bondo society, an influential and secretive group of women.   Shortly after she arrived, she was forced into a room and the door locked. Her hands were tied. She was beaten, blindfolded and gagged. Then a woman sat on her chest while others forced her legs apart. She was forcibly subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), the partial or total removal by cutting of the female genitalia.   “There was nothing left of me [to fight],” says Allieu. “Out of 100% energy, I was left with something like 1%. So they carried on with their operation.”   Nine years later, Allieu’s experience has led to a ruling against Sierra Leone by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice, which described FGM as “one of the worst forms of violence against women” which “meets the threshold for torture”.   The case, filed by Forum Against Harmful Practices (FAHP), We Are Purposeful, and Allieu, held the government liable for human rights violations due to its failure to criminalise FGM. The court ordered Sierra Leone “to enact and implement legislation criminalising female genital mutilation and to take appropriate measures toprohibit its occurrence and protect victims”.   Though the UN passed a resolution to ban FGM in 2012, it is still practised in about 30 countries. In Sierra Leone, a national survey in 2019 found that 83% of women had undergone FGM, with 71% of them subjected to the practice before the age of 15. There is no law explicitly criminalising the procedure, part of a traditional initiation ritual that marks a girl’s entry into womanhood, carried out by senior members of Bondo societies. Every year, women and children are left with health complications, and some die, as a result of such rituals.   When members of the Bondo society had finished mutilating Allieu, she was dragged to another room and left in a pool of blood for three days, until police found her and took her to hospital.   She had three operations to fix some of the damage that had been inflicted. After the third operation, Allieu remembers the doctor telling her “he had never seen this level of wickedness”.   Even so, a crowd, including Bondo society members, marched on the hospital, calling for Allieu to be handed over. The woman who had cut her was very influential and was angry that Allieu had escaped, with the help of the police. Unable to walk, Allieu was dragged by staff to the basement to hide.   “I felt like this was the end of the road,” says Allieu. “I was in so much pain, I was tired and had nothing left.”   Police and soldiers were called to protect the hospital and the crowd dispersed, but remaining in the hospital was impossible. One of Allieu’s neighbours worked for the UN and offered to drive her to the border with Liberia so she could leave the country. She made it to the other side and after 14 days arrived at a friend’s house.   Over the next five years, Allieu was helped by various people and organisations. She also met someone who offered to help after hearing her story, and paid for her to go abroad for surgery on her injuries.   After her trauma had subsided and she found out there had been a change of government, Allieu’s thoughts turned to her family, especially her son who was 10 when she left. She decided to return to Sierra Leone.   “People saw me, said I was dead and came to feel me to check I was alive,” she says. “When I saw my son and my family, it was good, I was happy.”   When word spread she was back, an activist got in touch and introduced her to Yasmin Jusu-sheriff, a human rights lawyer and former vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, who was instrumental, among others, in bringing the case to Ecowas.   The ruling on 8 July comes at a critical time in the fight against FGM in Sierra Leone. A few weeks before, on 21 June, the president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, became chair of Ecowas, marking a historic moment as the first Sierra Leonean head of state to hold the position. He has yet to acknowledge the ruling publicly.   Meanwhile, celebrations at the passing of the Child Rights Act 2025 in Sierra Leone in early July were tempered when parliament issued a press release on 7 July stating that the act, which prohibits all forms of violence against children, including physical and mental abuse, “does not contain any provision imposing a fine, penalty, or punishment specifically addressing FGM”.   The act is awaiting presidential assent. But as there is no mention of banning FGM, Josephine Kamara, advocacy and communications manager at Purposeful, says: “If we can’t name a violent action for what it is, and boldly call it out, we cannot begin to end it.”   “Politically and internationally, the situation just does not look good,” says Jusu-sheriff. “Since the president is chairman of Ecowas, and in light of the Ecowas decision, let him send the act back to parliament and let them rethink it.”   She adds: “The matter is in his hands, and his hands alone. He holds the sword of Damocles over himself. This is the thing that will determine whether he will go down as the greatest, most human rights-loving president of all time, or not.”   Allieu, who is bringing a separate case in Sierra Leone against the woman who mutilated her, is due to be awarded $30,000 (£22,000) in compensation as part of the Ecowas ruling. She says she can’t find work because of the public stigma surrounding her case, but wants to use the money to further her education and become an activist.   “I really want the government to look into this, especially the sitting president with his power as head of state,” she says. “I want him to honour the ruling of the Ecowas court and [make it so] the Child Rights Act can help eradicate FGM.”   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/28/the-matter-is-in-his-hands-alone-president-of-sierra-leone-urged-to-ban-fgm-as-court-rules-it-tantamount-to-torture   International day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation - UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, agencies   There are few more extreme reflections of deeply entrenched discrimination against women and girls than female genital mutilation. It is deeply rooted in communities’ gender and social norms and cultural and religious traditions. There is no way to change such harmful practices without challenging these discriminatory norms head on.   The International day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is an opportunity to focus efforts and build upon successful interventions. These include investing in the education of girls and their mothers, health education and community dialogues with parents and traditional and religious leaders. Men and boys also have an important role in transforming social and gender norms to end female genital mutilation as key change agents in prevention initiatives.   Hard-won rights and freedoms of women and girls around the world are under threat. The impacts of health crises, climate change and ongoing conflict increase their vulnerability to harmful practices, while also undermining efforts that have been making important progress. This is not a time to step back from efforts to end FGM, but rather to redouble them.   Women and girls have a right to live free from all forms of violence, have decision-making power over what happens to their bodies and equal access to education, employment, and income-generating and leadership opportunities. These rights imply duties in everyone to respond and to do so with urgency.   This International Day is also an opportunity to recognize the role of women’s rights activists working on the front lines to protect and support many millions of women and girls. They are the ones making the difference. They deserve every support.   UN Women continues to work with women and girls to accelerate the abandonment of this harmful and often deadly practice.   We continue to engage in concerted activities with men and boys and traditional and religious leaders to build political will and reverse discriminatory laws; enforce existing laws and policies; support women’s economic empowerment and scale up evidence-driven prevention programming to create new norms that are survivor-centered, trauma-informed and emphasize accountability for ending FGM once and for all.   * Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a harmful traditional practice involving the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It can cause immense physical and psychological damage and is internationally recognized as a grave violation of women’s and girls’ human rights. It is estimated that some 200 million girls and women globally have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. The practice continues in communities worldwide, with Unicef warning 4.3 million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation this year.   http://www.unfpa.org/events/international-day-zero-tolerance-female-genital-mutilation http://www.unfpa.org/unfpa-unicef-joint-programme-elimination-female-genital-mutilation http://www.unfpa.org/stories/i-wanted-be-last-woman-earth-have-undergone-fgm http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2025/02/female-genital-mutilation-is-violence-against-women-and-girls http://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-on-female-genital-mutilation-causes-impact-and-how-to-end-it http://data.unicef.org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-a-global-concern-2024/ http://www.unicef.org/topics/fgm http://www.unfpa.org/press/putting-survivors-forefront-global-movement-end-female-genital-mutilation http://www.unfpa.org/female-genital-mutilation http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/world-will-miss-target-ending-fgm-2030-without-urgent-action-including-men-and-boys http://reliefweb.int/report/world/governments-asia-must-take-action-female-genital-mutilation Visit the related web page
	Sexual violence in Conflict by Medecins Sans Frontieres, UNFPA, agencies   28 May 2025   Women and girls in Sudan’s Darfur region are at near-constant risk of sexual violence, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned today. The true scale of this crisis remains difficult to quantify, as services remain limited, and people face barriers in seeking treatment or speaking about their ordeal.   Yet all the victims and survivors who speak with MSF teams in Darfur and across the border in Chad share horrifying stories of brutal violence and rape. With men and boys also at risk, the extent of the suffering is beyond comprehension.   “Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere. They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped,” says Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator.   “These attacks are heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators. This must stop. Sexual violence is not a natural or inevitable consequence of war, it can constitute a war crime, a form of torture, and a crime against humanity. The warring parties must hold their fighters accountable and protect people from this sickening violence.   Services for survivors must immediately be scaled up, so survivors have access to the medical treatment and psychological care they desperately need.”   Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable.   “Some people came at night to rape the women and take everything. I heard some women being raped at night. The men were hiding in toilets or in some rooms where they could close the doors. The women didn’t hide because it was just beating and rape for us, but the men would get killed,” a woman told MSF’s team in West Darfur.   It is not only during attacks on villages and towns or during the journey to safety that people have been raped and beaten. Limited humanitarian assistance is forcing people to take risks to survive.   People are walking long distances to meet their basic needs and taking work in dangerous places. Others decide against taking the risk but are then cut off from their sources of income, further reducing their access to water, food and healthcare. This itself is no guarantee of safety, as people can be attacked at home as well.   MSF provided care to 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur between January 2024 and March 2025:   86% reported that they were raped. 94% of survivors were women and girls. 56% said they were assaulted by a non-civilian (by a member of military, police or other security forces or non-state armed groups). 55% reported additional physical violence during the assault. 34% faced sexual violence while working in, or travelling to, the fields. 31% were younger than 18, with 7% younger than 10 years old and 2.6% younger than 5 years old.   These disturbing statistics are likely an underestimate of the true scale of sexual violence in South Darfur.   The situation is similar in other places where MSF is able to provide care for victims and survivors such as eastern Chad, which currently hosts over 800,000 Sudanese refugees. In Adre, almost half of the 44 victims and survivors treated by MSF since January 2025 were children. In Wadi Fira Province, 94 victims and survivors were treated between January and March 2025, 81 under the age of 18. The testimonies of patients and caregivers in both eastern Chad and Sudan’s Darfur region bear this out.   “Three months ago, there was a little girl of 13 years old who was raped by three men…They caught her and raped her, then they abandoned her in the valley... They called some people to carry the girl to the hospital. I was one of them,” one man told MSF’s team in Murnei, West Darfur.   Many survivors report being raped by more than one person. In Metche in eastern Chad, 11 out of 24 victims and survivors treated between January and March 2025 were attacked by multiple assailants.   “When we arrived in Kulbus, we saw a group of three women with some RSF [Rapid Support Forces] men guarding them. The RSF also ordered us to stay with them,” says a 17-year-old survivor. “They told us, ‘You are the wives of the Sudanese army or their girls.’ … Then they beat us, and they raped us right there on the road, in public. There were nine RSF men. Seven of them raped me. I wanted to lose my memory after that.”   In some cases, the attackers directly accused the survivors of supporting the other side.   “I have a certificate for first aid nursing. [When they stopped us], the RSF asked me to give them my bag. When they saw the certificate inside, they told me, ‘You want to heal the Sudanese army, you want to cure the enemy!’ Then they burnt my certificate, and they took me away to rape me,” says one woman. “They told everyone else to stay on the floor. I was with some other women, including my sister. They only raped me, because of my certificate.”   It is vital that victims and survivors access services after the attack, as sexual violence is a medical emergency. The immediate and long-lasting physical and psychological consequences which can be life-threatening.   Yet survivors struggle to access medical care and protection because of a lack of services, limited awareness of the few services that exist, the high cost of traveling to facilities, and a reluctance to speak about the abuse due to shame, fear of stigma or retaliation.   “I cannot say anything to the community because it will be a shame for my family. So, I didn’t say anything about what happened to me before today. I’m only asking for medical help now,” says a survivor in eastern Chad. “I was too afraid to go to the hospital. My family told me, ‘Don’t tell anybody’.”   Where services exist, survivors need clear and accessible referral pathways to get the help they need. In South Darfur, the state with the greatest number of displaced people in Sudan, in late 2024, MSF added a community-based component to our care for survivors of sexual violence.   Midwives and community healthcare workers were trained and equipped to provide emergency contraceptives and psychological first aid to survivors. They also supported survivors’ referral to clinics and hospitals where MSF teams work for comprehensive care. Since the addition of this community-based model, we have seen a steep increase in women and adolescents seeking care.   MSF teams continue to see new survivors of sexual violence. In Tawila, where people continue to arrive after attacks on Zamzam camp and in El Fasher, North Darfur, the hospital received 48 survivors of sexual violence between January and the beginning of May, most of them since the start of fighting in Zamzam camp in April.   “Access to services for survivors of sexual violence is lacking and, like most humanitarian and healthcare services in Sudan, must urgently be scaled up. People – mostly women and girls – who suffer sexual violence urgently need medical care, including psychological support, and protection services,” says Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency medical manager.   “Care must be tailored from the outset to mitigate against the many overwhelming barriers survivors face when seeking medical care in the aftermath of sexual violence.”   Brutal attacks and rapes must stop, warring parties must ensure that civilians are protected, respecting their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, and medical and humanitarian services for victims and survivors of sexual violence must be scaled up urgently in Darfur and eastern Chad.   http://tinyurl.com/mpbyba67 http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sexual-violence-sudan-they-beat-us-and-they-raped-us-right-there-road-public-enar http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164621 http://www.unfpa.org/news/widespread-guns-and-bullets-sexual-violence-used-terrorize-sudans-women-and-girls   Sexual violence poses growing threat in eastern DRC   The UN Office for the Coordinations of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that sexual violence is on the rise in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   Across the country, humanitarian partners have reported more than 67,000 cases of gender-based violence between January and April of this year. This represents a 38 per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous year.   Only 58 per cent of the victims of the documented cases received appropriate medical care within the critical 72-hour timeframe.   More than 90 per cent of the reported cases nationwide are in the conflict-affected eastern provinces, where the response is further hindered by insecurity and aid cuts.   According to partners working in health, several health facilities in South Kivu province are facing shortages of post-exposure prophylaxis kits, mainly due to security constraints. In addition, several partners involved in responding to gender-based violence in South Kivu have closed their programmes since March due to aid cuts.   In South Kivu’s Uvira territory alone, local authorities have documented more than 100 cases of sexual violence from February to April 2025, with further attacks being reported in May.   http://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-occupied-palestinian-territory-yemen-democratic-republic-congo-sudan http://www.msf.org/sexual-violence-eastern-drc-persistent-emergency http://www.care.org/media-and-press/emergency-kits-run-out-alongside-hope-for-drc-sexual-violence-survivors/   UN urges for immediate action as sexual violence surges amid gang violence in Haiti   The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), Ms. Pramila Patten, expresses grave concerns over the escalating levels of sexual violence being inflicted upon women and girls amid the worsening gang violence in Haiti.   The situation has reached a breaking point. Since the beginning of the year, reports of sexual violence – particularly rape and gang rape – have surged at an alarming rate.   “These heinous crimes are overwhelmingly concentrated in areas under gang control, where State presence is virtually nonexistent. In many instances, sexual violence is being used deliberately and systematically to assert dominance and punish communities,” stated Special Representative Patten.   Women and girls are increasingly subjected to sexual violence alongside other grave crimes, including kidnapping and killings during gang attacks. Survivors are often assaulted in their own homes or public spaces.   Alarmingly, the past eight months have seen a dramatic rise in documented cases of sexual slavery, further exemplifying the brutal oppression of women and girls.   “I condemn the widespread atrocities perpetrated by armed gangs, including conflict-related sexual violence and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Concrete and immediate measures are essential to enhance the protection of Haitians, prioritizing those most at risk”.   The full deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to reinforce Haitian national security forces, alongside the enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions aimed at crippling gang operations – particularly the illicit arms flow fueling these crimes – has never been more urgent.   Widespread insecurity and the broader humanitarian crisis are unraveling the social fabric, displacing thousands and pushing many into overcrowded and unsafe shelters. Access to essential services, including medical and psychological support for survivors, remains severely limited.   The closure of critical health facilities due to insecurity has further strained an already fragile system while impunity for these crimes emboldens perpetrators. Urgent and decisive action is required.   Ending impunity is a fundamental step in breaking the cycle of violence and restoring dignity and safety to Haiti’s women and girls.   * Guardian News: Tens of thousands of Tigrayan women report brutal wartime abuse by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, such as gang-rape and the insertion of objects into their uteruses. But justice seems a distant prospect. Warning: this article contains distressing testimony and images.   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/30/sexual-violence-tigray-women-abuse-gang-rape-ethiopia-eritrea http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/31/mass-rape-forced-pregnancy-sexual-torture-in-tigray-ethiopian-eritrean-forces-crimes-against-humanity-report http://phr.org/our-work/resources/you-will-never-be-able-to-give-birth-conflict-related-sexual-and-reproductive-violence-in-ethiopia/ http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/help-us-live-with-dignity-not-just-survive-new-un-report-calls-for-scaled-up-comprehensive-services-amid-unprecedented-levels-of-conflict-related-sexual-violence http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/report/report-of-the-secretary-general-on-conflict-related-sexual-violence/SG-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf   http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/un-special-representative-patten-urges-for-immediate-action-as-sexual-violence-surges-amid-gang-violence-in-haiti/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/sexual-violence-against-children-conflict-surges-50-5-years-worst-level-ever http://www.unfpa.org/press/ending-sexual-violence-conflict-breaking-cycle-healing-scars-and-building-world-peace http://www.unfpa.org/dont-let-the-lights-go-out http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/in-their-own-words-voices-of-survivors-of-conflict-related-sexual-violence-and-service-providers http://plan-international.org/news/2025/08/15/sexual-violence-must-never-used-weapon-war/ Visit the related web page
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