Last week, as word spread about girls kidnapped by Boko Haram last year returning to their communities having been raped and impregnated, the Nigerian Senate passed the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Bill, which seeks to prohibit multiple forms of gender-based violence including economic abuse, female genital mutilation, and depriving persons of their liberty among others.

actress and comedian Rose Nyabhate is championing the rights of the girl child via an anti-female genital mutilation campaign dubbed 'We Are Watching'. According to her, having grown up in a rural area where FGM is rampant, gave her and fellow partners the basis to start the initiative which aims at sensitizing community members against the risky practice.

he girls were ready to leave for London on Eurostar when French police arrived at the school gate to take them into care and their parents into custody. It is doubtful the cousins, both six, had been told why they were crossing the Channel. But activists campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) told the Guardian they had learned that the parents were planning to have them "cut", and tipped off the police just in time. The story demonstrates France's zero-tolerance towards FGM, a tough approach that has jailed about 100 people in dozens of high-profile cases.