Boko Haram: 214 Rescued Girls Pregnant – UNFPA

FOLLOWING—THE latest rescue of additional 234 women and children by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, indicated, yesterday, that a sizeable number of the rescued girls 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 at 214.

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.

This handout picture released by the Nigerian army on April 30, 2015 and taken this week in an undisclosed location in the Sambisa Forest, Borno state, purportedly shows a member of the Nigerian Army standing next to a group of women and children rescued in an operation against the Islamist group Boko Haram. Boko Haram hostages were held in atrocious conditions in the group’s Sambisa Forest stronghold, Nigeria’s military said on April 30 after nearly 500 women and girls were released this week. AFP PHOTO / NIGERIAN ARMY
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.

Further, he explained that the UNFPA had earlier collaborated with the Federal and state governments to train 60 counsellors to offer psychosocial services to the affected women and children. He noted that those trained were people from the communities, who understand the context and sociology of the people.

“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.

APC Governors Meet Buhari On Ministerial Nominees Tuesday

Governors of the All Progressives Congress are meeting with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on Tuesday, The PUNCH has learnt.

The meeting, it was gathered, would be the first to be attended by the governors jointly since the conduct of the March 28 presidential election which Buhari won.

One of the governors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, said that the meeting would also be attended by all the APC governors-elect.

He said, “The APC governors, serving and incoming, are to meet GMB (Buhari) on Tuesday morning in Abuja to pay a courtesy call on him, formally congratulate him on his electoral victory and make input into the policy direction of the administration ahead of the May 29 inauguration of the new government.

“Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, the governors would hold a meeting on Monday evening in Abuja where we would firm up our presentation to the President-elect.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said he was not aware of the meeting, however, stated that it was possible.

He said he had been busy with the work of the transition committee set up by Buhari.

Mohammed said, “Yes, the meeting is possible but I have been busy with the committee’s work.”

It was learnt that the governors might demand that they be allowed to nominate those to be appointed ministers in their states.

Apart from this, the governors are also expected to make their position known on which zone to be supported for the office of the Senate President.

It was gathered that the governors would demand that they be allowed to nominate who should become the Senate President.

Despite the fact that two of the governors contested the presidential primaries against Buhari, majority of the governors supported his candidacy.

After Buhari’s emergence as the party’s standard bearer, the governors wanted one of them as his running mate, but when the lot fell on Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), they bowed to party supremacy and supported the GMB/PYO ticket.

It was gathered that the governors felt that they should be allowed to present the next Senate President since they had not collectively got anything since the formation of the APC.

Buhari emerged from the old All Nigeria Peoples Party and the defunct Congress for Progressives Change block while Osinbajo emerged from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria block.

The governors believed that they played a prominent role in the merger that led to the formation of the APC