About 214 girls rescued from sambisa forest are pregnant

About 214 girls from those recently rescued by
the Nigerian Army are reportedly pregnant.
According to a report by Vanguard newspapers,
the figure was obtained from one of the Internally
Displaced Persons camp in Borno.
This was stated by the Executive Director,
UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, who also
disclosed that in the last one year, his
organization had taken deliveries of over 16,000
pregnancies in the troubled North East part of the
country.
“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,” he stated.
“UNFPA is providing dignity for women. In
conflict and disasters, most people would only
think of water and sanitation, provision of tents
and housing, and food, which are all important.
But women and girls have specific needs that
nobody else looks after; it is only UNFPA that is
doing this. We are giving psychosocial
counselling.
“Beyond that, in the growing young people, we
will always have pregnant women, but nobody
segregates the needs of the pregnant women
which are very important and different from the
needs of the average community. We look after
them, and ensure they get antenatal care and that
they deliver properly and that they even get
Caesarean Section when necessary.
Photo for illustrative purpose