Overview

• Gambian police have charged three women under the 2015 Women’s (Amendment) Act, with one remanded and facing life imprisonment and two granted bail as accomplices.
• Preliminary findings indicate the one-month-old suffered severe bleeding following the procedure and was pronounced dead on arrival at Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital.
• These charges mark one of the first major prosecutions under the law since parliament rejected repeal of the ban last year and have reignited calls for rigorous enforcement.
• Emmanuel Daniel Joof and rights advocates describe the case as a national wake-up call, while Concerned Citizens have urged authorities to stop targeting traditional cutters.
• Although FGM is outlawed, about three-quarters of Gambian women are estimated to have undergone the practice, and activists warn that weak enforcement is pushing it into clandestine, riskier settings.