Some 214 out of 234 Nigerian girls rescued from a Boko Haram camp in the Sambosa Forrest are pregnant, the United Nations said Monday (May 4). The girls are being screened for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
“About 214 of those already screened were discovered to be at various stages of pregnancies, some visibly pregnant and some just tested pregnant; but we are supporting all of them with various levels of care to stabilize them,” Babatunde Osotimehin of the UN Population Fund said. “Some of the children that were freed along with the women, it was discovered, were born in the forest and had never been out in the open until their release by the Nigerian Army.”
The rescued, have not been confirmed as including the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last April.. The women and girls however are receiving counseling, Ostimehin said. “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 faed, so the counseling has to be more intense and working with them one-on-one.”
In addition to the rescued, some 260 women and children had recently escaped from a Boko Haram camp near Northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa State. The abducted are said to be from the town of Madagli, and other areas nearby. The Nigerian Army reportedly freed 7,000 people from different Boko Haram camps in the last week.
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Photo: NBC News screenshot
