Burkina Faso Togo Preview

Following the criminalization of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ghana, most Ghanaian parents now travel to neighboring Togo and Burkina Faso to have their daughters cut, ActionAid Ghana has revealed.

According to James Kusi Boama, Upper East Regional Programe Manager of ActionAid Ghana, “the cross-border activity of perpetrators of FGM is alarming, as most Ghanaian parents cross the borders to cut their children and bring them back to Ghana.”

“This is because the communities that patronise the practice are now aware that FGM is criminal in Ghana.”

While FGM is outlawed in our neighboring countries, including Togo and Burkina Faso, the perpetrators prefer the “cross-border cutting” because nobody will identify them and report them to the police.

There has been heightened interest in FGM in Ghana since a law was passed in 1994 to criminalise the act.

The FGM Law (Act 484) provides that “whoever excises, infibulates or otherwise mutilates the whole or any part of the labia minora, labia majora and the clitoris of another person commits an offence and shall be guilty of a second degree felony and liable on conviction to imprisonment of not less than three years.”