page_title: Prevalence of female genital mutilation
section_title: Africa
hierarchical_section_title: Prevalence of female genital mutilation / Africa
caption_attribution_description: Prevalence of female genital mutilation for women aged 15–49 years, in 29 countries in which FGM is known to be concentrated.
context_page_description: Female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting, is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East and Asia, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia. The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."
  In a 2013 UNICEF report covering 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Egypt had the region's highest total number of women that have undergone FGM, while Somalia had the highest percentage of FGM.
  The world's first known campaign against FGM took place in Egypt in the 1920s. FGM prevalence in Egypt in 1995 was still at least as high as Somalia's 2013 world record, despite dropping significantly since then among young women. Estimates of the prevalence of FGM vary according to source.
context_section_description: In July 2003, at its second summit, the African Union adopted the Maputo Protocol promoting women's rights and calling for an end to FGM. The agreement came into force in November 2005, and by December 2008, 25 member countries had ratified it.
  As of 2013, according to a UNICEF report, 24 African countries have legislations or decrees against FGM/C practice; these countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria (since 2015), Senegal, Somalia, Sudan (some states), Tanzania, Togo and Uganda (see page 9 of the report) and Zambia and South Africa (see page 8). In 2015, Gambia's president Yahya Jammeh 
  has banned FGM.
  In 2014 The Girl Generation, an Africa-led campaign to oppose FGM worldwide, was launched.
caption: Prevalence of FGM in women aged 15–49 years in 29 countries in which the practice is concentrated, 2014
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