By Lamin Njie
The case of two women who were arrested for subjecting a five-month-old girl to female genital mutilation was dropped due to insufficient evidence, it has emerged.
Sunkaru Darboe and Saffiatou Darboe from Kiang Sankandi were arrested in March 2016 after they were accused of carrying out female genital mutilation on Aminata Drammeh. The five-month-old girl died shortly after her mutilation. It was the first ever arrests on female genital mutilation since a ban was placed on the practice in 2015.
The Gambia government in a new report on Thursday said the Women’s Act of 2015 as amended criminalises Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
“Section 32B of the Act prohibits the practice in all its forms and any person found culpable is liable on conviction to a term of three years imprisonment or to a fine of Fifty Thousand Dalasi or both. Where the act results to the death of the victim, the perpetrator is liable to life imprisonment. The Act also imposes a legal duty to report that the act has been done or is being done or about to be done,” the government said in its report on the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa.
According to the report, the only FGM case that has reached the courts in The Gambia so far is the case involving Sunkaru Darboe and Saffiatou Darboe.
“However, the case was subsequently withdrawn by the State largely due to insufficient evidence,” the report said.
