U.N. Population Fund Says 214 Women Rescued From Boko Haram Are Pregnant

The United Nations announced this week that 214 of the girls and women recently rescued from a Boko Haram stronghold in northeastern Nigeria are reportedly pregnant.

The United Nations Population Fund said Monday that of the hundreds of girls and women recently rescued from Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa Forest in the Borno State last week, 214 are reportedly pregnant.

Babatunde Oshotimehin, executive director for Nigeria's U.N. Population Fund, told local media outlets that many of the pregnant women have already begun screening for diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

"Already, many of them are undergoing screening for various diseases, infections including HIV/AIDS," Oshotimehin told local media outlets, according to Haaretz.

According to Haaretz, none of the girls rescued from the Boko Haram stronghold have been identified as the same girls kidnapped from their school in the Borno State last year.

Oshotimehin added to the International Business Times that the U.N. group is working to counsel the women so they may be reintroduced back into their communities.

"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," he said.

"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 added.