DEAtH oF GIrl prompts first FGM prosECutIon In SomAlIA

SOMALIA - Somalia’s attorney general has announced the nation’s first prosecution for female genital mutilation after a ten year old girl bled to death following a traditional cutting last week.

The announcement has been described as a “defining moment” in a nation where 98% of all women and girls undergo FGM, the highest rate anywhere in the world. Speaking at a conference on FGM in the capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday, attorney general Ahmed Ali Dahir said he had sent a team of ten investigators to interview Deeqa Dahir Nuur’s parents and the village cutter who performed the fatal operation. “We are ready to take it to court,” Dahir told an audience of officials, journalists and religious leaders, organisers reported on Twitter. Deputy prime minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled, who also attending the event hosted by the Global Media Campaign to End FGM and the Ifrah Foundation, said: “It is not acceptable that in the 21st century FGM is continuing in Somalia. It should not be part of our culture. It is definitely not part of the Islamic religion.” State prosecutors have been dispatched along with the criminal investigation bureau to Galmudug state, where the operation took place, to collect evidence, Guled added. “The prosecution of those involved in Deeqa’s will send a strong message to the country,” he said. “This is really a defining moment for Somalia.”

The surprise announcement has been welcomed by campaigners all over the world. FGM survivor and activist Ifrah Ahmed, 26, said the declaration “had taken everyone by surprise”. “It shows just how quickly things can move when there is political will,” said Ahmed. Previous campaigns to end FGM, which is upheld by conservative and religious groups but technically illegal under the constitution, have proved futile. “It is great news that the attorney general is taking this girl’s death seriously,” said Brendan Wynne of Donor Direct Action, a charity that supports anti-FGM groups worldwide. “Although there isn’t an effective FGM law in Somalia, we hope a prosecution can happen to send a signal that this extreme form of violence will no longer be tolerated. Somali girls are dying because of FGM. There is no excuse to not reduce it completely in this generation.” (The Guardian)