Female genital mutilation (FGM) will take centuries to eradicate despite world leaders promising to end the practice by 2030, according to United Nations data released on Thursday.
FGM remains as common today as 30 years ago in Somalia, Mali, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Chad and Senegal, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said, while countries making progress need to change at least 10 times faster to meet the 2030 goal.
"Some countries are not moving at all and those that are moving are not moving fast enough," UNICEF analyst Claudia Cappa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.