Hunger stops circumcision in Masvingo

Acute food shortages spawned by a ravaging drought in the last farming season have seen the Tshangani communities in Masvingo Province suspending their annual mass circumcision rites this year, the National Aids Council (NAC) has said.

The ceremony is usually performed in winter.

NAC Masvingo provincial Aids co-ordinator Ivos Makoni said the rites had to be suspended to avoid unnecessary deaths in the camps, which involve about three weeks of initiation into “manhood” in the bush.

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