The 2025 tribal ‘initiation ceremony’ where teenage males in South Africa undergo agonising circumcision has ended – with 39 deaths and dozens more boys mutilated.
Despite a target being set by the Government of zero fatalities this year, the figure is still a huge drop on last year where 93 died, while a total of 361 boys have died in the last five years.
Gruesome complications in 2024 led to 11 penis amputations after unskilled traditional ‘surgeons’ used old spears and razor blades to perform the eye-watering rituals.
Thousands more have ended up in hospital since 2020 after the twice-yearly three-month seasons of initiation which ends with the circumcision.