The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, (UNICEF), has informed that about 4.16 million girls and women are at risk of genital mutilation even as two million cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) would be recorded by 2030 as a result of COVID-19 disruptions globally. The officer in charge, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, UNICEF Field Office, Enugu State, Mrs. Maureen Zubie Okolo, made the disclosure on Friday during a one-day zonal media dialogue in collaboration with Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA) Umuahia. Themed ‘Accelerated Investment to End Female Genital Mutilation’.
Mrs. Okolo said that in Nigeria, female genital mutilation occurs mostly during infancy, adding that an estimated 86 percent of females were cut before the age of five, while eight percent were cut between the ages of five and 14.
The UNICEF specialist said that FGM has remained widespread in Nigeria with an estimated 19.9 million survivors, adding that Nigeria accounts for the third-highest number of women and girls who have undergone FGM worldwide.
She stated that while the national prevalence of FGM among women in Nigeria aged 15-49 dropped from 25 percent in 2013 to 20 percent in 2018, prevalence among girls aged 0-14 increased from 16.9 percent to 19.2 percent within the same period.
“Millions of girls are being robbed of their childhoods, health, education, and aspirations every day by harmful practices such as FGM and child early and forced marriage.
The practice of FGM not only has no health benefits, but it is also deeply harmful to girls and women, both physically and psychologically. It is a practice that has no place in our society today and must be ended, as many Nigerian communities have already pledged to do,” she said.
She said that UNICEF was initiating a community-led movement to eliminate FGM in five Nigerian States of Ebonyi, Ekiti, Imo, Osun, and Oyo where it is highly prevalent, adding that nearly three million girls and women would have undergone FGM in the states in the last five years.
Mrs. Okolo also noted that FGM is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
“It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and is an extreme form of discrimination against girls and women,” she said.
In an address, the director-general, Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State, Sir Anyaso Anyaso, said that FGM comprises all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
He expressed the regret that girls who undergo FGM face short-term complications such as severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine as well as long-term consequences for their sexual and reproductive health and mental health.
Sir Anyaso added that to promote the elimination of FGM, coordinated and systematic efforts were needed and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights.
