Health > Women circumcised: Countries Compared

A program against female circumcision in Senegal, which began in 1997 with 13 Senegalese villages publicly declaring that they would no longer permit female circumcision, has spread to more than 1,500 villages in the ensuing eight years, according to a story in the Christian Science Monitor. Those villages represent 30 percent of the Senegalese villages which are known to practice female circumcision. <p>The program is being replicated with some success in Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Mali. It is also under consideration for introduction in Somalia, where almost 100 percent of women are circumcised. <p>An estimated two million girls in 26 African countries are circumcised annually.