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Reporters stripped by S.Leone circumcision society

By Christo Johnson

Four women journalists were abducted and stripped naked in Sierra Leone by members of a secret society that practices female genital cutting, one of the reporters and a press freedom watchdog said on Wednesday.

Female genital cutting is common across much of West Africa. In Sierra Leone, ranked bottom of the U.N. human development index, most women have undergone some form of cutting and are therefore regarded as members of the "Bondo" secret society.

The radio reporters were in the eastern city of Kenema reporting on the tradition, also known as circumcision or genital mutilation, when they were assaulted, one of the journalists said.

"The four of us were suddenly picked up at different areas in the town," Isha Jalloh, a reporter with Eastern Radio, told Reuters by phone.

"We were stripped naked in the bush for them to make sure that we have indeed undergone the various processes of the society, especially if we have gone through circumcision," Jalloh said ... more

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