GENEVA - The heads of three UN agencies yesterday appealed for international support for a campaign to end the practice, widespread in Africa and parts of the Middle East, of female genital mutilation.
Launching the appeal at a news conference, World Health Organisation Director General, Mr Hiroshi Nakajima, said some 130 million women and girls around the globe had been subjected to such mutilation and two million more were added each year. The operation involves partial or total removal of external female genital organs, or their mutilation.