The latest rescue of additional women and children by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, indicated, that a sizeable number of the rescued girls were visibly pregnant, even as unofficial reports put the number of pregnant girls at 214.
"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."
Giving this indication in Lagos, Executive Director, UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, 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.
On the state of the girls, he explained that most of them, 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.
"We find that more people are now needing our services and we will continue," he stated.
