Anti-FGM caravan embarks on 12,000-kilometre campaign to end logging in Africa
African survivors of female genital mutilation will lead thousands of campaigners in a two-year “caravan campaign” across the continent calling for an end to the practice.
Organized by #FrontlineEndingFGM, a group of grassroots activists and organizations in Africa will travel approximately 12,000 kilometers through 20 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan and Cameroon.
Activists, medical professionals and religious leaders from high-prevalence areas in these countries will organize a series of events and radio broadcasts tailored to local challenges in eradicating FGM. At the borders of each country, the convoys will hand over an anti-FGM banner and the “Dear daughterpromise book, in which families commit to protecting their daughters from the cuts, until the next caravan.
“We are shifting power,” said Ayo Bello-Awodoyin, who is in charge Global media campaign to end FGM in Nigeria. “Grassroots activists who have been doing the work but haven’t really had the support to do it at this level will now have the opportunity to come out en masse in different countries and lead these efforts.”
The campaign, inspired by the ‘pink bus’ anti-FGM movements that began in Gambia almost a decade ago, will begin in Mauritania in June and run until mid-2026, when it ends in Djibouti.
FGM in Africa has declined over the past thirty years, more rapidly in some places than others. Countries such as Kenya, Burkina Faso, Togo and Liberia do witnessthat rapid decline, while there is still strong support for it in Gambia, Somalia, Mali and Guinea. In Sierra Leone it remains legal despite continued calls for a ban, which was revived after three girls died during an FGM ritual in January. although many African countries have anti-FGM lawsActivists say poor enforcement is allowing the practice to persist.
“The main problem is the effectiveness of laws – if we say FGM is a criminal offense but there is no prosecution, it becomes a big challenge,” Bello-Awodoyin said.
Activists say that to eradicate the practice, which is often rooted in cultural and religious beliefs, advocacy must be tailored to each region where the practice occurs. In Somalia for example, true 98% of women have undergone FGMAccording to rights groups, the view that cutting is a religious requirement hinders its eradication.
“It will have a huge impact on the community to hear a religious leader say that it is not a religious practice, but a cultural practice,” said Ifrah Ahmed, a FGM survivor and founder of the organization. Ifrah Foundation, which advocates an end to austerity.
Campaigners will use the caravan to mobilize communities in hard-to-reach areas, including camps for internally displaced people, where they will screen documentaries about the health effects of FGMincluding complications during childbirth, as well as menstrual, sexual and psychological problems.
“If they watch these documentaries themselves, it will reach them differently. It is one thing to tell them that young girls are dying from FGM, but it is another thing when they see it,” says Ahmed.
Activists say regular radio campaigns are an effective way to reach communities. A three-year deployment project organized by religious leaders in the Tana River region of southern Kenya resulted in an 84% reduction in the worst form of FGM, according to the Global media campaign. The organization hopes the caravan will reinvigorate anti-FGM advocacy across the continent, as threats – including one shift to medicalized FGM in the Horn of Africa, and underground practices – threaten to reverse progress.
“I hope that people will learn how harmful FGM is… and that survivors and leaders of grassroots organizations will not stop fighting,” Bello-Awodoyin said.