Girls hospitalised after botched circumcisions

About 50 girls have been hospitalised in Burkina Faso following botched circumcisions, or female genital mutilation (FGM), BBC Afrique reports.

Some of the girls are as young as four years. Two 60-year-old women have been arrested over the botched circumcisions, along with the parents of some of the girls, BBC Afrique reports.

FGM has been illegal in Burkina Faso since 1996, and carries a jail term of up to three years.

The minister of women’s affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, said the number of girls circumcised is thought to be higher, but not all of them have been traced.

The circumcisions took place between 4 and 6 September in the Kaya area, about 100km (62 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, she added.

A dozen of the girls have been admitted to the Kaya Regional Hospital and 38 to the Chiphra Protestant Hospital in Ouagadougou.

Some of the girls had suffered serious complications, Dr Dieudonne Ouedraogo said. BBC News