A police officer in Kenya who had helped protect girls forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) was confronted by a gang of youths and violently killed, reports say. Officers in Elgeyo Marakwet county in the Rift Valley region had taken a group of six girls to a hospital after they were subjected to the illegal procedure, according to The Guardian. A mob then stormed into a police post “in a bid to get the girls,” whereupon they “overpowered the officer who was on duty and stoned him to death before burning his body using a mattress,” according to Kenya’s state-owned news agency. The officer was identified as Cpl. Mushote Boma, while county police commander Peter Mulinge said the girls are now recuperating at a local hospital.