Article content

JOHANNESBURG — A 10-year-old girl has bled to death after undergoing female genital mutilation in Somalia, an activist said, a rare confirmed death in the country with the world’s highest rate of the practice.

The girl died in a hospital on Monday, two days after her mother took her to a traditional circumciser in a remote village outside Dhusamareb town in central Galmudug state, Hawa Aden Mohamed with the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development said in a statement.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or 10-year-old Somali girl dies after female genital mutilation Back to video

“The circumciser is suspected to cut an important vein in the course of the operation,” Mohamed said.

About 98 per cent of women and girls in the Horn of Africa nation undergo female genital mutilation, according to the United Nations. While Somalia’s constitution prohibits the practice, Mohamed said no laws have been enacted to ensure that those who perform the circumcisions are punished.

Lawmakers are “afraid of losing their political clout among the all-powerful conservative traditional and religious groups bent at retaining the practice,” she said.