OVER 200 girls rescued from Boko Haram are feared to be pregnant following reports of widespread rape and sexual violence against them by the Nigerian terrorist group.
A total of 275 women and children were brought to a camp at the weekend, following a military operation to free them from the terror group’s forest stronghold.
The military said those freed did not include hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last April.
Human toll … Women and children rescued by Nigeria soldiers from Boko Haram extremists at Sambisa forest arrive at a refugee camp in Yola on Saturday, May 2. Picture: Sunday Alamba/AP Source: AP
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that 214 of the rescued girls were “visibly pregnant”, according to the International Business Times.
The online magazine said the claims followed reports that women and girls kidnapped by the insurgents were routinely raped and forced to marry their abductors.
“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,” UNFPA executive director Professor Babatunde Osotimehin told media in Nigeria’s capital Lagos.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said those not receiving treatment in hospital would receive “all the support they require” as they come to terms with their ordeal.
Stronghold … A Boko Haram camp burns after it was allegedly destroyed by Nigerian military personnel during an attack in the Sambisa Forest. Picture: AP Source: AP
“We are working out the long-term support they need,” NEMA spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said. “They need trauma management so they’re not treated as outcasts when they go back to society.”
Two women described how militant fighters tried to force them into marrying rebels after they were captured and how their escape turned to tragedy as at least three women were killed by landmines.
Others were crushed by tanks as they hid in the undergrowth of the dense forest to avoid shelling and firing between the soldiers and Boko Haram.
Vulnerable … Lami Musa, 27-years old, abducted by Boko Haram five months ago holds her four-day old baby, inside a truck after she arrived at a camp following her rescue. Picture: Sunday Alamba/AP Source: AP
Ezekiel said the authorities were keen to avoid the women being stigmatised in religiously conservative northern Nigeria, with reports Boko Haram may have kept some as sex slaves.
“We are trying our best to see if they can be properly rehabilitated,” he said, adding medical tests would not only check for conditions such as malaria but sexually transmitted diseases.
Turai Kadir, who helps in the internally displaced people camps in the city, said the former hostages were “not in great condition”. “All of them are traumatised,” she added.
“They’re hungry. They’re sick. One woman told me she was picked up from a market where she was selling with her husband. They (Boko Haram) took them to the bush and killed her husband.
“They said they were going to get her married to their master. There’s nothing more traumatic than that.”
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