Around 50 girls, including some as young as four, are being treated in hospital in Burkina Faso after they underwent female genital mutilation (FGM). Two women, along with some of the girls’ relatives, have been arrested. Not all the girls who underwent the circumcision have been traced, the minister of women’s affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, told the BBC.

The procedure is reported to have been carried out in Kaya, northeast of the capital, Ouagadougou. The NGO Voix de Femmes, which runs a centre on the outskirts of the capital for survivors, said it had assisted five girls, while many others were taken to local hospitals. On Tuesday campaigners in Somalia announced that a third girl had died in less than a week after undergoing FGM in the Puntland region. Suheyra Qorane Farah was cut along with her sister, Zamzam. Both bled profusely and fell into a coma. Zamzam’s condition improved, but Suheyra’s worsened. She was diagnosed with tetanus and died on 17 September.(theguardian)…[+]