The reports on Gambian papers of the death of a five months old baby who allegedly underwent Female Genital Cutting (FGM) in a remote suburb of the Gambia – Kiang West has left many people shocked and dismayed. The 5 months old Aminata Drammeh is said to have died when her grandmother name Sunkaru Darboe and one Safiatou Darboe took the baby to a local FGM practitioner Isatou Camara who allegedly performed the lethal surgical operation on the toddler. The toddler reportedly bled profusely to her death without proper medical attention.
Both the grandmother and the practitioner has been arrested and have since been arraigned at the Banjul Magistrate court and charge with conspiracy to practice FGM and allegedly causing the death of baby Aminata Drammeh. Both suspects have been remanded awaiting further trial. The case is being presided over by principal magistrate Omar Cham at the Banjul Magistrate Court. A third suspect is said to be in the run and local law enforcement authorities are searching for the suspect.
Readers may recall that little over two months ago President Jammeh abruptly issued a ban on the dangerous practice of FGM without the legislative backing and or adequate consultation with stake holders. This was widely welcomed by activists in the Gambia and around the world. However, many expressed reservation and fear that with such a deeply practiced harmful but cultural practice a mere Presidential degree to ban the practice was not good enough. Many including GAMCOTRAP and other organizations who have long been advocating for the total ban of the practice for decades urged the Gambia government to pass a law and create an educating consultation with practitioners to put a total stop to the practice.
A law was later passed and incorporated into the Women’s Act by the Gambian Parliament stating that perpetrators of FGM crime will face up to 3-year in jail and a possible D50,000 fine in Gambian law. While this was a welcome development many expressed reservation that the law did not go far enough to curtail the practice.
Although the banning of FGM was no doubt a laudable move in Gambia, gender activists’ organizations and many familiar with the cultural practice feared that the practice will take a new turn by going underground. This paper expressed concerns through an editorial that the abrupt banning of the practice without proper education and or engagement of local communities will make this practice more “dangerous”. We stated that the practitioners will now go underground and were likely to move to cutting new born babies instead of older children. We argued that when new babies are cut no one will realize the impact of it without parents reporting it. This makes the practice even more dangerous as little babies are more susceptible to infection while their immune systems are still building resistant to infection.
A strong gender activist argued that a proper approach to banning FGM would have been to engage on a sensitization tour and discussion with communities on the eradication of the harmful practice through legislative and or community participation means. If community elders, activists and practitioners were educated on the government’s intention to work with them to ban the practice, it might have been more effective. As it stands, what many feared is now manifesting itself by claiming its first known victim. It is never too late to engage in educating the people about the need to total elimination of this very dangerous practice. Though the arrest and prosecution of these perpetrators will send a message to communities, mass education at the local level needs to be in the forefront if the ban is to have the effect it is intended to do.
As we go to press it is reported that the parents of Baby Aminata Drammeh and other family members have also been arrested. Gainako will continue to monitor the court case and update the general readership.