FREETOWN (AFP) - Fifteen Sierra Leonean women involved in female genital mutilation (FGM) made a collective public declaration at the weekend "completely" to abandon the practice, a local paper said.

The 15, who were not named by the Sierra News, are widely regarded as highly skilled in female circumcision in Lunsar, in Porto Loko district, 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital, where the government estimates they were responsible for up to a third of the operations.

They pledged at a public ceremony to work now towards "safeguarding the health of women and girls," the state-owned newspaper said.

As a symbolic gesture, the women publicly set ablaze their instruments, at a rally organized by a local non-governmental organisation, the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), championing a campaign against FGM in the West African nation.

The Ministry of Welfare estimates that between 35 and 40 percent of women in the country undergo circumcision, traditionally believed to control female sexuality and make girls more "marriageable".

The practice is still carried out in 28 African countries according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and often causes infection and sometimes death. The WHO estimates that between 100 million and 140 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation worldwide and that a further two million girls are at risk.

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