2 Young Sisters Die After Undergoing Female Genital Mutilation – National Public Radio

Two sisters from a remote pastoral village in Puntland State, Somalia, died on Sept. 11 of complications from a female genital mutilation (FGM) procedure.

An “inexperienced self-proclaimed traditional circumciser” performed the procedure the day before, according to Dr. Mohamed Hussein Aden, director of the University Teaching Hospital in Galkayo, Somalia, who sent an email with his comments to NPR.

According to Aden, the procedure caused profuse bleeding, and the girls died of hemorrhagic shock en route to the hospital, about 75 miles from the location of the procedure.

Aden indicated that the girls — Aasiyo Farah Abdi Warsame, 10, and Khadijo, 11 — underwent the form of FGM known as infibulation, in which the clitoris and labia are cut and re-stitched to narrow the vaginal opening.

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