There has been a huge fall in the rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) across Africa over the last 30 years, a new study has found.

The biggest analysis of data of its kind from 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, covering more than 200,000 girls up to the age of 14, shows there has been a “huge and significant” drop in the number of girls undergoing the procedure.

The World Health Organization defines FGM as any procedure involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

It usually takes place any time up to the age of 15 and, according to data from Unicef, 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the procedure.

The study of countries where the practice is most prevalent, published in the BMJ Global Health journal, shows that the reduction in rates of FGM has been greatest in East Africa, where more than 70 per cent of girls aged up to 14 endured the procedure in 1995. However, this figure fell to eight per cent in 2016.