Police in South Africa has confirmed on Thursday that over 20 boys have died over the past week during circumcision rituals blaming botched circumcisions as the likely cause of death.
In Northern Mpumalanga province’s police department alone, 22 murder
cases have been opened although no arrests have been effected yet,
according to spokesman Colonel Leonard Hlathi.
Every year in South Africa, boys aged 10 to 15 years from several of
the country’s tribal groups are circumcised in traditional “initiation
rituals”. The ceremonies usually take place over a number of weeks in
remote rural areas.
The Xhosa teens, initiated into manhood in a centuries-old
circumcision ritual called ulwaluko, stay in seclusion outside their
Eastern Cape village, wrapped in ceremonial blankets and painted with
white clay for purification.
Hospital surgeries reduce the infection
rate, but many boys opt for the old rite.
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