203 of the girls rescued from Sambisa forest are pregnant - UNPFA

The United Nations Population Fund yesterday indicated that a sizeable number of the girls rescued by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa forest in Borno state were visibly pregnant. Unofficial reports put the latest number of pregnant girls in one of the camps in Borno as at last Saturday at 203.

Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director, UNFPA, also disclosed that in the last one year, the organization had taken deliveries of over 16,000 pregnancies in the troubled North East part of the country.

Osotimehin, while giving an update of the response to the rehabilitation of the rescued women and children, said that in anticipation of the magnitude of the problem on hand, the organization had put in place a formidable team in collaboration with the Federal and state governments, to first restore the dignity of the girls, who, he said, are facing severe psycho-social trauma. He said that many were raped and impregnated. While some have delivered babies.He claimed that over 200 of the newly found girls are at different stages of pregnancy.

He explained that most of the girls, due to the long period spent in captivity, required a special set of services that would facilitate their integration into society.

“What we found is that some of the women and girls that have come back actually have much more in terms of the stress they have faced, so the counselling has to be more intense and working with them one-on-one.
“I’m glad the communities are not excommunicating them and are taking them back. That is an important therapy too. We anticipate this is going to escalate because the military intervention is continuing, we find that more people are now needing our services and we will continue” .