Somalia To Pursue 1st FGM Prosecution after Botched Operation led to 10-Year Old’s Death

A young girl takes part in a reenaction of the ceremony Pokot tribal people perform before a girl is put through female genital mutilation (FGM).

Somalia is set to finally take legal action against female genital mutilation.

According to fresh reports, a high profile FGM case that caused nationwide uproar will make the country’s first ever prosecution.

Deeqa Dahir Nuur, a 10 year old girl died after a nerve was severed by local cutters on the 17th of July. Deeqa bled out two days later in a hospital.

CNN reports that Somalia’s deputy Prime Minister, Mahdi Mohamed Guuled in a conference organized by Global Media Campaign to End FGM on Wednesday confirmed that the perpetrators will face the full wrath of the law. While Somalia currently has no law against FGM, Guuled confirmed that they will try the suspects using existing laws.

Guuled shared:

This is an historic moment for ending FGM in Somalia. This cannot be happening in our country in the 21st century. It is not part of our religion, and it will not be part of our culture.

Further reports from the doctor who tried to save Deeqa’s life shared with CNN  that she suffered the “most extreme form of FGM he had ever seen”.

Doctor Abdirahman Omar Hassan revealed:

“Her whole female genital tract had been removed, the labia and the clitoris had been cut off, it’s type 4 FGM.

 She was brought in two days after they cut her, she was already infected with tetanus. I have never seen this kind of mutilation. And I have treated many bad FGM cases here because it is so common. She was bleeding and convulsing. We tried to save her, but she died an hour later.”

Photo Credit: Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

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