'They said my twin was a witch and deserved to die': How Britain is tackling the female genital mutilation of schoolgirls

The Government has announced a £50 million investment in ending the practice of female genital mutilation worldwide. It hopes to stamp out the practice by 2030 through education and grass roots initiatives across Africa. In our piece published in September, Lucy Njomo shares her experience of being 'cut'.

Lucy Njomo will never forget her twin,  who died when they were just 11-years-old.  The weeks leading up to her death were traumatic for both girls, who then lived in Cameroon.

Their father came from a community that practiced female genital mutilation (FGM), in which the clitoris and labia are removed then the vagina is sewn or stapled to leave only a small opening.

FGM is often performed without anesthetism as part of a "coming of age" ritual. It is a cultural practice in certain communities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with some of the highest rates in Somalia, Guinea, Egypt and Sudan, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

The day she and her sister were "cut" is seared into Lucy's memory. Their mother had left them at home alone – she didn't agree with the practice – and older women from her father's community came over with tools. 

"We're going to make you look more beautiful," Lucy, now 61, remembers one of them saying. "It will be painful but you'll look pretty later on. A bit like having your hair plaited."  

For weeks afterwards, Lucy found it difficult to move, but her sister developed a high fever. She had an infection that the family weren't able to adequately treat. Within six months, Lucy's twin had passed away.  

The local community said that she "wasn't meant to live, because she was a witch". They persecuted Lucy, too: "When I tried to play with other children, they'd shift away from me. I'd been very close to my sister, then she wasn't there," she explains.

The events of those weeks have coloured Lucy's entire life. The ordeal destroyed her confidence and left her with a constant feeling that "something is wrong". 

FGM is illegal in the UK, where Lucy now lives, but NHS figures compiled in the three years to March 2018 show that more than 16,000 women and girls living in England have had the procedure. Given that it goes widely unreported, officials expect this figure could actually be much higher.

Last week, British police ramped up efforts to tackle FGM, signing an agreement with US law enforcement that will see the two countries share intelligence around the issue. 

FGM is a notoriously difficult crime to fight and there have been no successful prosecutions in the UK since it was outlawed in 1985. Police face a near-impossible task – in many cases FGM isn't actually performed on British soil, but girls are taken abroad, during the holidays, to have the procedure. Another problem is that it is a cultural practice that has, in many communities, been present for generations. 

"It's more widespread than people know, because it's such a taboo," says Lucy. Globally, around 125 million women are cut, according to the WHO. 

One of the Met Police's main weapons in the fight against FGM is Operation Limelight, a campaign that involves "days of action" at airports and train stations at the beginning and end of the school holidays. Now in its fifth year, the operation runs six times annually in the UK and has now been adopted in six US cities. 

Representatives from the Met Police, Border Force, the National FGM Centre, affected communities and social services meet trains and planes leaving for or arriving from countries where FGM is practiced. They interview families who are travelling with school-age children, with an aim of identifying at risk girls and gathering information about how the problem is evolving.  

At Heathrow Airport in May, Operation Limelight focused on flights arriving from India, Egypt and Brussels (which had connections from parts of Africa). As well as looking for children who could be victims of FGM, police look for signs of breast ironing, forced marriage and witchcraft, all of which are classified as safeguarding issues. They spoke with dozens of families and put some forward for further questioning after identifying they had children out of school in term time. But none were suspected of having children who were recent victims. 

"We're not going to arrest ourselves out of this problem," says Inspector Allen Davies, who was running the operation on behalf of the Met Police. "We need to win the hearts and minds of affected communities, safeguard those who are vulnerable, and try to prevent it from taking place." 

One of the main goals is to learn how the practice differs across countries and where it is growing or declining in prevalence. For example, an officer says, "Unlike in other countries, it's medicalised in Egypt. But that doesn't man it's in any way more acceptable." 

Davies adds, "We need to know where and how it's taking place and encourage people in these communities to work with us. We don't want to have to wait for a child to say, 'I've been a victim of FGM'. Then they have to give evidence in court about someone very close to them."

Some people have criticised the operation, saying it relies on racial profiling, but Davies rejects this interpretation. "We mitigate that by the fact the majority of people are wholly supportive of what we're doing," he says. "Of course we're targeting fliers that are linked to countries where we know there's a higher risk of FGM, but it's child abuse and against the law."

The police also work with local community organisations to educate the public and identify at risk children.

"Some of our biggest supporters are the campaigners, survivors and community groups that want us to be actively involved and support the shared goal to eradicate FGM," says Davies. 

Lucy Njomo is one such survivor. She runs the African Youth Development Association, which advocates for and supports young people, including in the fight against FGM. For her efforts, she was recently awarded a British Empire Medal. The next step in combating the problem, Lucy says, is making FGM education mandatory in schools. 

"We should look at this as a safeguarding issue like abuse, rape and neglect," she says. "It's really important everyone has an in-depth knowledge of FGM."

But, no matter how much she campaigns, she will always carry the scars of her own brutal treatment. When she had her only child, who is now 28, she wasn't able to give birth naturally. And she has never taken any pleasure from sex. After her husband died in 2003, she decided to focus her attention on advocacy work. For her, a close, loving relationship doesn't feel possible. 

The National FGM Centre is run by Barnardo's and the Local Government Association