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Why are we calling for action now?
On 20 December 2021, 21-year-old Maseray Sei bled to death a day after being subjected to FGM, and this was confirmed by the postmortem carried out on 14 January. A few days following Maseray’s death, in a different region, a 15-year-old girl was admitted to hospital for urgent treatment after suffering serious complications after undergoing FGM.
Sadly, these are not isolated incidents in Sierra Leone. Many women and girls in recent years have died or suffered devastating harm as a result of FGM, and during the recent holiday period, there were widespread reports of hundreds of young women and girls being subjected to FGM.
Sierra Leone’s government is failing in its duty to protect women and girls from FGM
Sierra Leone has one the highest FGM prevalence rates in Africa, with 83% of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 years having undergone the procedure according to the 2019 Demographic Health Survey.
Despite the harm caused by FGM, the Government of Sierra Leone has failed to criminalize the practice. The country’s penal code does not address FGM in its legislation and there have been no known prosecutions relating to FGM.
The failure to ban FGM has been further aggravated by the lack of political will to end this harmful practice and the failure by the State to explicitly condemn FGM.
Sierra Leone must urgently enact and enforce a comprehensive anti-FGM law
We're calling on the Government of Sierra Leone to urgently introduce a law that explicitly bans FGM, puts in place adequate measures to protect against and eliminate FGM, and gives survivors and the families of victims a means to access justice. Join us.
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