Botched circumcision procedures in remote parts of South Africa are killing young men to such an extent that it has been labelled genocide by a local health official

In 2013 alone, 39 young men have died from unsafe operations in the Eastern Cape, and over the last seven years, there have been 462 reported deaths. The main cause of hospital admission is septicemia. In the last seven years, 5,000 young men have been admitted to hospitals in South Africa suffering complications after their circumcision procedure. It is also the main cause of death. For those who survive, they must live with the embarrassment and humiliation of being permanently deformed. There is also a strong belief still, in parts of South Africa, that those who succumb to problems during initiation are not real men.