“I remember hearing gunshots and feeling afraid. I ran to save my life and that of my six children, but I was not fast enough… I lost my baby… but I had to remain strong for the others…”, recounts Zainab (not real name) rescued from the Sambisa forest.
“We are looking for your men. Do not run,” she remembers the gunmen saying when her village was stormed, leading to abduction of women and children. Another survivor, a pregnant Fatima (not real name) watched Boko Haram militants murder her husband and drag her three children away. Afterward, she was taken to the Sambisa Forest and ended up giving birth in the forest. She and her newborn were later rescued.
The above tales of horror orchestrated by Boko Haram insurgents at the peak of their acts of terrorism in North-East Nigeria has been strongly condemned by the internal community including the United Nations (UN).
The plain truth, yet a sad commentary, is that at the receiving end of the humanitarian crises arising from insurgency are women and children. The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the refugees kept growing.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the UN system in Nigeria put the total number of IDPs at 1,235,294 while 2,120 refugees and asylum seekers were registered as of 17 January 2015.
According to Assessment Capacities Project, Start Network (ACAPS), the majority of IDPs are in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, in the far northeast, but 47,276 IDPs are in Plateau, Nasarawa, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna states.
However, the magnitude and severity of needs remain more pressing in the northeast, where humanitarian emergency thresholds have been exceeded and access was for a long time extremely challenging.
Thus, it is no longer news that hundreds of women and children were abducted and held in locations hitherto held by the insurgents, including the dreaded Sambisa forest. It is also not news that hundreds of women and children have been rescued and are still being rescued by the military.
That a number of the women and girls rescued were very traumatised and found to be pregnant is also in the public sphere. However, that every pregnancy, regardless of circumstances leading to it, must be safe and delivered is the issue for the front burner of public discourse.
No doubt, the women and girls have gone through hell in the hands of their abductors. Their rights have been infringed upon; they have been brutalised and abused; and many have lost their lives in the process. The lucky ones that are still alive are back and still far away from returning to their normal self. They, obviously, need all kinds of support: foods, non-foods, dignity kits, health support, education, livelihood, among others.
Furthermore, every time there is a humanitarian emergency, the actors in the humanitarian field are quick to rush and repeatedly provide food and non-food items to the displaced population.
Of course, that reinforces the African proverb that says, ‘If you resolve the challenges of feeding in the life of a poor man, then he is no longer poor.’ But over time, the reality of other equally critical needs set in. The pregnant women, the lactating mothers, women of reproductive age and the children have to be catered for specially.
The United Nations through its specialised Agencies, Programmes and Funds and the government, with the benefit of hindsight, always anticipates this and in all cases, factors such into its response plans.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) being the lead Agency of the UN in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) is committed to delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Its mandate was determined by United Nations Members, including Nigeria.
Indeed, Nigeria is one of the countries whose 1965 appeal to the UN ultimately inspired the creation of UNFPA a few years later.
UNFPA in Nigeria is committed to save lives, restore dignity and rebuild broken lives of vulnerable women and girls.
Within the context of the insurgency in the North-East and its humanitarian challenges especially as they affect women and children, UNFPA is addressing gender-based violence in humanitarian settings through a wide range of services, including counselling, post-rape treatment, legal support, assistance with livelihoods, and support through its Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) programs.
Working with and through the government of Nigeria including in the states, UNFPA interventions in 2014 alone supported more than 16,000 safe deliveries in North East Nigeria; reached about 2.6 million women and girls with SRH services including for Gender Based Violence (GBV) management in North East Nigeria; and supported provision of modern family planning services to an estimated 2 million women and Couple Year Protection of 2.2million countrywide.
It is gladdening to note that through its interventions and support, about two thousand maternal deaths were averted country wide while another one thousand free fistula treatment surgeries were supported with 97% success rate across the country.
Explaining the SRH support to the rescued girls and women, the Director and Country Representative of UNFPA Nigeria, Ms Rati Ndhlovu, observed that “Upon the arrival of rescued women and children in Malkohi camp in Yola, UNFPA responded immediately by providing reproductive health care and psychosocial counselling to survivors of violence.
“Women and girls who survive unimaginable trauma of captivity and brutalizing violence need immediate and compassionate care and UNFPA has been, as always, determined to ensure that they are given everything they need to be able to heal with dignity, safety and a restored sense of self-worth. After a few weeks of counselling, there was marked improvement in the survivors.”
Restoring the livelihood and normal lifestyle of the rescued women and children and those that are displaced by the insurgency and military operations is the issue on the front burner of the UN system in the country.
Of particular importance is ensuring that women can deliver babies safely and that they and girls can maintain their health, dignity, rights and self-worth even in the most challenging situations.
“Our efforts”, Ms Ndlovu added, “are focused on supporting women and girls to restore their lives as quickly as possible and begin the process of healing to be able to fulfill their potential and once again resume productive lives.”
