Attempt to overturn the Gambia’s ban on FGM heard by supreme court

Pro-FGM protesters demonstrating outside the Gambia’s parliament in Banjul in 2024. Almost 75% of women in the country have been cut, usually as infants. Photograph: M Bittaye/AFP/Getty

A group of religious leaders and an MP in the Gambia have launched efforts to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation at the country’s supreme court.

The court case, due to resume this month, comes after two babies bled to death after undergoing FGM in the Gambia last year. Almameh Gibba, an MP and one of the plaintiffs, tabled a bill to decriminalise FGM that was rejected by the country’s parliament in 2024.