The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned that no fewer than 4.5 million girls worldwide are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in 2026, despite decades of global campaigns to eradicate the practice.
The UN agency said an estimated 230 million girls and women across the world are already living with the consequences of FGM — a harmful practice involving the alteration or injury of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
UNFPA said the practice, which is internationally recognised as a gross violation of human rights, remains widespread across 94 countries on all continents.
The agency stressed that even when FGM is carried out by healthcare professionals — a process often described as “medicalised” — it remains dangerous, unnecessary, and unjustifiable.
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“Even with a professional present and sanitised equipment available, female genital mutilation is neither safe nor necessary. There is never any medical justification for it,” UNFPA stated.
Ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked annually on February 6, the agency expressed concern that millions of girls and women continue to endure deep, long-lasting and sometimes life-threatening physical and psychological harm.
UNFPA identified entrenched social norms and the false belief that opposition to FGM is driven by foreign influence as key factors sustaining the practice.
“We’re busting this myth,” the agency said, noting that evidence from about one-third of countries where FGM is practised shows a steady decline over the past three decades.
Data indicate that while one in two girls previously underwent FGM, the figure has dropped to one in three in recent years. Globally, UNFPA said two-thirds of men and women now support ending the practice.
“To protect these girls, we all must invest to meet the target of ending this harmful practice by 2030,” the agency said. “Governments, donors, the private sector, communities, grassroots organisations, girls, women, boys and men all have a role to play as agents of change.”
UNFPA also noted that comprehensive sexuality education in schools is helping thousands of children understand the dangers of genital mutilation.
Africa continues to bear the heaviest burden of the practice. In Ethiopia, for instance, about 75 per cent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone some form of FGM.
However, the agency acknowledged that progress is being recorded in some countries through legislation and religious intervention. In Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia, Islamic scholars issued a national fatwa in 2025 declaring that there are no religious grounds for female genital mutilation.
UNFPA said sustained political will, community-led action and adequate funding remain critical to eliminating the practice within the next decade.
