New findings surfaced that a
large number of the two hundred and thirty-four women rescued were visibly
pregnant, even as unofficial reports put the latest number of pregnant girls in
one of the camps in Borno as at last Saturday to two hundred and fourteen.
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.
Osotimehin, while giving
update of the response to the rehabilitation of the rescued women and children,
said the organization, in anticipation of the magnitude of the problem on hand,
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 psychosocial trauma.
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.
“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.
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