Overview
- A joint WHO–UNICEF–UN partners statement reports 4.5 million girls are at risk this year and more than 230 million women and girls live with FGM’s consequences, calling the practice a human-rights violation with no medical justification.
- The agencies say progress has accelerated—reducing the share of girls subjected from one in two to one in three—yet warn funding cuts and growing pushback threaten to reverse gains without predictable financing.
- They cite strong returns on targeted spending, estimating treatment costs at about US$1.4 billion annually and calculating that US$2.8 billion could prevent 20 million cases and generate tenfold economic returns.
- Gambian lawmakers this week rejected a bill to decriminalize FGM, keeping the 2015 ban in place as advocates pivot to strengthening enforcement where the practice persists.
- Conflict in Sudan is dismantling health services and weakening enforcement of its 2020 criminalization law, with researchers warning some midwives may revert to cutting, while community efforts, survivor leadership, and recent fatwas in Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia continue to counter religious justifications.