FGM Practitioners At Banda Crossing Into Côte D'Ivoire For The Act- Radio Ghana Report

Radio Ghana has learnt that in a bid to practice the outlawed Female Circumcision or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), some practitioners of the act in the Banda District of Bono-Ahafo crossover to la Côte d Ivoire with victims to perform female circumcision or have it done when the girls are still babies and cannot object.  

The Bono-Ahafo Regional Director of the Departmemt of Gender of the Ministry of Women and Gender, Joycelene Adi, who made the revelation said although generally the banned FGM is on the decline it still does happen.  She was speaking in an interview with the GBC in Sunyani. 

FGM refers to any practice that involves partial or total removal or alteration of the external female genital organs for non-medical reasons. 

The World Health Organisation has estimated that about one hundred and thirty to one hundred forty millions girls and women in the world have undergone FGM and about three million women and girls are at risks of being subjected to mutilation every year. 

The problem is a world-wide one due to migration. 

The practice is prevalent in twenty-eight African countries including Ghana. In Ghana, the practice exist in the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Bono-Ahafo and parts of Volta Regions.  

Ghana officially banned it in 2007, making it criminal, but according to the Bono-Ahafo Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Madam Adi, more work is needed to end it in areas like Tain and Banda in Bono-Ahafo as FGM is still there but hidden.

She continued that currently one girl who managed to flee the practice last year has become an exile from Banda seeking refuge in Nsakaw, the Tain District Capital.  

The Chiefs of these areas,according to Madam Adi, maintain that they are working towards its eradication although it's very difficult.  

She said the Chiefs say they need help from Stakeholders to sensitize the Citizens on the need to stop FGM since it is now illegal. 

She therefore called for all Concerned Groups to come on board to help stop the practice.  

Madam Adi also called for uniform sanctions across West Africa to stop the phenomenon of people going elsewhere to indulge in the banned practice.  

She revealed that although FGM is illegal in Côte d Ivoire for instance, the sanctions are not deterrent enough hence the readiness of some Ghanaians to go there to undertake the practice.  

The consequences of FGM cover a wide range of health issues among which are increased risks in maternal and reproductive health, child birth complications, difficulties in menstruation and urinating, risk of contracting tetanus, infertility, HIV and AIDS and mental health. 

FGM has been recognised as a serious form of violence against women and girls coupled with other social and psycho-sexual, consequences.

GBC