More than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls who are
still captives of Boko Haram militants “definitely” face the danger of being
raped, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict said Friday.
“My worry is those girls don't come back half
of them pregnant,” said Zainab Hawa Bangura told a luncheon at the British
Residence in New York.
The abduction of more than 300 schoolgirls by
Boko Haram militants in April shocked the world and caused outrage among
Nigerians. More than 200 girls remain captive.
Bangura said the international community needs
to prepare the girls' families for their return and put psychological and other
supports in place for the girls.
And she told her audience that more than 2,000
girls in Nigeria already had been abducted before this case brought the
situation to the world's attention.
Bangura, the daughter of a Muslim cleric, was almost
married off at the age of 12 in Sierra Leone but became a forceful advocate for
women during the deadly conflict there. She said more than 60,000 females were
raped during the violence. She said the youngest victim she advocated for was 3
years old.
Bangura wove stories of her own background with
startling details about her work persuading leaders, often male leaders, to see
sexual violence as a serious issue.
She said she won Congo President Joseph
Kabila's attention to the issue of sexual violence by members of his military
by asking him how he would feel if his twin sister were raped.
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