Diamakouta, Senegal
A total of 212 villages in Senegal and The Gambia agreed on Sunday to renounce female circumcision and weddings featuring child brides.
About 1 500 inhabitants from the 12 Gambian and 200 Senegalese villages gathered in Diamakouta in southern Senegal near the Gambian border for a ceremony led by Tostan, a local Senegalese NGO working to eradicate female circumcision.
Following witness accounts, theatre pieces and dance performances aimed at showing the risks and misery caused by female circumcision and forcing children into wedlock, the ceremony ended with a young girl reading a joint declaration in English, French and several local languages vowing to halt the practices.
Tostan, which means "breakthrough" in Wolof, the most widely spoken language in Senegal, has been working for a decade to eradicate female circumcision in the country through local actions and education.
Sunday marked the 26th declaration in Senegal vowing to halt female circumcision since 1997.
In all, 2 299 villages, or 45% of the 5 000 communities where the rite was still in practice 10 years ago, have vowed to renounce the tradition, according to Tostan.
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