Two 60-year-old women have been arrested in Burkina Faso for illegally circumcising at least 50 girls some of them as young as four years.
The girls have been hospitalised after complications arose from the circumcisions also referred to as female genital mutilation.
Some of the parents of the girls have also been arrested.
Female circumcision has been illegal in Burkina Faso since 1996, and carries a jail term of up to three years.
The minister of Women’s Affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, said the number of girls circumcised is thought to be higher, but not all of them have been traced.
The circumcisions took place between 4 and 6 September in the Kaya area, about 100km (62 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou.
A dozen of the girls have been admitted to the Kaya Regional Hospital and 38 to the Chiphra Protestant Hospital in Ouagadougou.
Some of the girls are said to have suffered serious complications.