Controversy over pregnant women rescued from Sambisa

The rescue, so far, of 293 women and girls from various Boko Haram dens is heartening. But when stories filtered in that some of the rescued were visibly pregnant, allegedly at the instance of the dreaded insurgents, a new layer was added to the already complicated security challenge that has claimed over 13,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
“Of all the catastrophes unleashed on our people, none of them is as dangerous as the issue of impregnating our young wives and daughters by the terrorists,” said Samuel Yusuf, a sociologist. “The society would have to think of where to place the children that would be delivered, he said, adding: “And we should not forget about stigmatization and its attendant effects. If these kids grow and realize that the society is nursing a grudge against them, they can become more violent than their fathers, who are mostly killed by now.”
Few days after the rescue, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) declared that some of the women were found to be pregnant. Executive director of the body, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin disclosed that at least 214 of the girls are pregnant. He also said that all the kidnap survivors have severe psychosocial trauma and are receiving intense rehabilitation to attempt to restore their dignity.
But Fati Bukar, 27, from Gumsiri village in Borno State, said they were not subjected to sexual violence.
Findings have shown that while some of the women were actually married, and many of them pregnant for their husbands before they were taken away by the Boko Haram insurgents, there are others that got into the family way while in captivity. Sources said this underscores the reason why the Nigerian military was cautious in protecting the identity of the girls, especially those found to have been impregnated by insurgents.
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, speaking through his spokesman, Isa Umar Gusau spoke on the issue. “[Boko Haram] have a certain spiritual conviction that any child they father will grow to inherit their ideology, whether they live with the children or not. The sect leaders make very conscious effort to impregnate women, some of them, I was told even pray before mating, offering supplications. After getting their captives pregnant, they keep them to allow the pregnancy mature to make abortion difficult or impossible. They abandon the women afterwards to go and give birth anywhere else.”
Governor Shettima said he expects security agencies to establish the paternity of all children recovered, from interactions with the victims and other forms of investigation. “My major concern is how we as stakeholders from the Federal and State Governments will manage women that might be affected. I am seriously worried with the fact that most women tend to hate and abandon children they deliver from rape,” he said.
Governor Shettima added: “The problem is that these children could go to the streets unattended to, lacking food, healthcare and education. The result is that they could indeed inherit their fathers somehow.”
Weekly Trust gained access to some married women that put to bed in the Sambisa Forest and surrounding villages, especially those taken to Adamawa State. “There is no way you will be allowed to see any of the girls that got pregnant in the bush because there are legal issues involved; there is also the issue of stigmatization by the larger society,” a security source said.
But he was silent on an inquiry about the insinuation in certain quarters that some of the girls are the Chibok girls. “Every woman deserves to be protected. What you should understand is that the society we live in is very fragile and if these pregnant women are exposed; their lives will never be the same. They would hate themselves because of the way people would be looking at them. That’s why we are trying to find a safe landing that would be favourable to all,” the source said.
Clerics, medical personnel, sociologists, legal practitioners and residents are divided on what authorities should do with the yet-to-be-born babies.
Quoting Chapter IV, Section 1 of the Nigerian Constitution, which states that “Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria,” Barrister Haruna Ibrahim said there was no basis for the pregnancies to be terminated. He said: “As far as I’m concerned, the babies should be allowed to live and the state should take responsibility of their upbringing. They should be confined to a special orphanage and given all the requisite education for them to be worthy citizens.”
Haruna said mothers of the babies should also be fully rehabilitated and then reintegrated into the society. “Relevant authorities have already done well by protecting the identities of the mothers and this should be sustained till they are delivered of the babies so that they can resume normal life,” he said.
A medical personnel at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) who craved for anonymity, said there are dangers in terminating some pregnancies. “The situation is evidently dicey…you cannot terminate advanced pregnancies because in some instances, you will end up killing both baby and mother,” he said. Asked of the scientific evidence of the children taking after their fathers, the source said, “It is very likely, very possible because genetically, you take some attitudes from your mother and some from your father.”
A cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Allamin Najeh, said in Islam, children born out of wedlock are innocent, even though they cannot inherit anything from their fathers. “An illegitimate child may be looked down within the society he lives, but in terms of Islamic obligations, the legitimate and illegitimate children are equals. But illegitimate children may suffer socially in societies where people give intense emphasis on whom a child was born to, or where a parent’s status is automatically transferred to a child. In the case of those more than 200 rescued women who were reportedly said to have been impregnated by Boko Haram members during their captivity, those yet-to-be-born babies are considered legitimate since the mothers (allegedly) said the insurgents married them.”
Sheikh Najeh added: “The Islamic Shari’ah sees those children, when they are born, as legitimate and they would be judged according to their deeds, not that of their fathers’.
Few days after the rescue of the women and girls, they were transported to Yola in several trucks. After a two-day journey, they were exhausted and hungry. Majority of them are children while the rest are women and girls, including new mothers who gave birth in Sambisa Forest. Some were too weak to be on their feet and had to be assisted while many limp on queues for registration. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told Weekly Trust that 22 critically-wounded persons have been taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, while those with lesser injuries are being treated at the camp clinic.
Lami Musa had given birth to a baby girl she named Bintu, the day she was rescued, but could not have access to medication until reaching camp. She had been abducted from Lassa after she watched the killing of her husband when she was four months pregnant. “They often beat us and starved us,” she said.
There is growing concern about the condition of rescued women and girls who may have been impregnated by the insurgents who are known for sexual violence against their female captives. However, officials at the camp told Weekly Trust that no test has yet been conducted on the women to ascertain their status. But a nurse who requested for anonymity said the possibility of pregnancy could not be ruled out.
Some of the rescued women denied knowledge of anyone among them who got pregnant during their time in captivity. “Some of us were pregnant before our abduction but I do not know of any woman impregnated by the insurgents. They threatened to marry some of us but we insisted we were married women. They did not force themselves on us,” a woman said.
Some happy stories are out there, too. Families who have their members missing as a result of Boko Haram attacks troop to Yola to check for missing relatives. One Abdurrahman Abbas was happy to reunite with his mother, Aisha, who was abducted from Dikwa and held in Sambisa until her rescue.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of NEMA, Sani Sidi has said that the agency has deployed a team of doctors to the IDP camps to assist victims. He said he was working with UN agencies and nongovernmental organisations to provide the best care for the rescued persons.
In a report titled ‘Nigeria: Welfare of ‘Rescued’ Women and Girls is Paramount’, Amnesty International called on authorities to ensure that the trauma of those ‘rescued’ is not exacerbated by lengthy security screening in detention. “This development is just cause for celebration and undoubtedly an immense relief to the women, girls and their families. But this is just the tip of the iceberg; there are thousands more women and girls, and men and boys who have been abducted by Boko Haram,” said Netsanet Belay, Africa Director, Research and Advocacy.
According to a recent Amnesty International report, more than 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram. “The trauma suffered by the women and girls is truly horrific. Some have been repeatedly raped, sold into sexual slavery or indoctrinated and even forced to fight for Boko Haram,” said Belay. “What they need now is medical and psychological care and support and privacy. The government must now ensure that it doesn’t add to their suffering with lengthy detention and security screening which can only add to their suffering and plight.”