The law also provides for the payment of compensation by the perpetrator to the person against whom the offense was committed. The law provides that anyone who has custody, charge, or care of a girl under 18 and who causes her to undergo FGM commits the offense of cruelty to children. According to data, the Ministry of Health estimated that 5 to 15 percent of women and girls underwent FGM; their average age was less than 10 years old and reportedly included some newborns.
FGM was practiced by approximately 20 of the country's tribes and was most prevalent in the mainland regions of Arusha, Singida, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, and Dar es Salaam. In other parts of the country, less than 5 percent of the population practiced FGM. Clitoridectomy, a less severe form of FGM, was employed most frequently; however, infbulation, the most severe form, was also practiced, mainly in the northern highlands and the central zone.
On June 15, a local government offcer in Singida stated that out of 1, women in Manyoni District of the Singida Region who delivered in health clinics were circumcised. In June it was reported that infants below one year of age in Makiungu village, Singida Region, were subjected to FGM by their mothers, unlike in the past when the procedure was performed by traditional healers called "ngaribas.
There were no reports of prosecutions related to FGM during the year. Enforcement of the anti-FGM law was diffcult for a number of reasons: many police offcers and communities were not aware of the law, victims were often reluctant to testify, and some witnesses feared reprisals from supporters of FGM.
Corruption was also a factor; some villagers reportedly bribed local leaders not to enforce the law in order to carry out FGM on their daughters.
