Sixteen men and three women have been arrested for allegedly aiding and abetting female genital mutilation (FGM) in eastern Uganda after reports of gangs attacking women in the region.

The suspects were taken into custody earlier this week after joint police and military operations in Kween district. The arrests followed local media reports of more than 400 women, some as young as 12, being mutilated by force by local gangs in the past month.

FGM was outlawed in Uganda in 2010, but campaigners say too little is being done to persuade people, especially in rural areas, to stamp out the practice.

The reported groups of up to about 100 people are led by elderly women, accompanied by men armed with machetes.

“We carried out an operation,” said Polly Namaye, Uganda’s deputy police spokesperson. “Some of the people we arrested include those who participate in the process, the people who cut, those who prepare the girls for circumcision, the ones who sing during the celebrations and all that.

“It [FGM] hurts the girls [and women], it makes them uncomfortable and fear for themselves. It’s torture in itself.

“We encourage that this [practice] is not carried on. We encourage the women to stand up for themselves and refuse to take part in this ritual, which was made criminal by law.”

Mercy Munduru, programme officer with the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers, said the police should have taken action earlier.

Ugandan police display a poster warning girls not to cross the border to Kenya to undergo female genital mutilation. Photograph: Sally Hayden/Alamy

“FGM has no place in our society and should not be happening in 2019 under the watch of our security personnel. FGM violates the rights of women and girls to sexual and physical integrity,” said Munduru.

“We strongly condemn the forceful and continued prevalence of FGM in eastern Uganda, which in essence is washing away the relevance of the FGM Act, a law we fought so hard for to avert such a gross violation of women’s rights.”

Livingstone Sewanyana, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives, said: “The biggest weakness with our legal system is inability to implement laws that have a bearing on individual dignity and integrity. The FGM Act is one such piece of legislation that has hardly been enforced, yet FGM is both dehumanising and degrading to those who are subjected to this inhuman act.

“What needs to be done to eradicate such a practice on a more sustainable basis, besides prosecution under the law, is to carry out intensive sensitisation of communities about the dangers of such an archaic practice to a person’s health, bodily integrity and wellbeing.

“A collective public education campaign by state institutions and civil society organisations, alongside local leaders, would offer a more effective and deterrent solution to this problem.”

Traditional beliefs in the Kween, Bukwo and Kapchorwa districts, in Sebei region, and Amudat and Moroto in semi-arid Karamoja region, make it hard to combat FGM.

Munduru said: “No single approach can eliminate FGM. Criminalising the practice only will not change people’s behaviour. We recommend greater government involvement in the protection of women’s rights. Tackle the secrecy that allows cutting to continue.

“It is time for advocates to invoke human rights standards and hold governments accountable for their inaction in response to FGM. So that girls and women no longer have to suffer in silence.”