Rights activists in The Gambia are calling for justice after a one-month-old baby's death was linked to female genital mutilation, a widely practised but illegal procedure up for review before the country's Supreme Court.
The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world, with 73 percent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the procedure, according to 2024 figures from UNICEF.
The baby girl was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital in the capital Banjul after being 'allegedly subjected to circumcision' and developing severe bleeding, The Gambia Police Force said in a statement Sunday.
The death has sparked outrage among women's rights defenders working to combat the deeply rooted cultural and religious practice that they say is a harmful violation against women and girls.
'FGM is not a cultural tradition to be defended - it is a form of gender-based violence that can kill,' Santana Simiyu, a human rights lawyer with rights group Equality Now, said in a statement sent to AFP Tuesday.
