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AP Photo/Azeez Akunleyan
World News

"Deep trauma counselling" needed for rescued Nigerian girls, says Christian charity

by Hannah Tooley

The girl was initially thought to be the second of more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok to be rescued from Boko Haram, however it's turned out the girl was kidnapped from her family and was not from the boarding school where the mass abduction took place in 2014.

The news comes after a first girl, 19-year-old Amina Ali Nkeki (below), also a kidnapped Chibok girl, was rescued with her four-month-old baby on Wednesday.

On Thursday Amina Ali Nkeki was flown to Abuja to meet the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

She says some of the girls died in captivity but most remain under heavy guard in the forest.

AP Photo/Azeez Akunleyan

Andrew Boyd from Release International told Premier's News Hour that the girls will need lots of help overcoming the trauma they've experienced.

He said: "[Amina] will almost certainly need trauma counselling at a very, very deep level.

"We're talking about a girl who's seen others killed - 6 others died while in captivity, she's been made pregnant.

"She's had a baby and she probably deeply loves her baby, but it wouldn't have been her choice."

"She will be in need of a great deal of help."

AP Photo/Azeez Akunleyan

Andrew Boyd went on to say that many more women and girls have also been abducted by the terror group: "According to UNICEF at least 1,000 children have been rescued since the beginning of 2016 alone - this year alone - so the Chibok girls, they're out there somewhere, they are probably within that forest, but there are so many more besides them."

Parents of the kidnapped girls, the Bring Back Our Girls movement and aid workers have criticised the Nigerian government and military for their handling of the development, with Refugees International claiming her escape is being politicised and that she should not be paraded in public but getting urgent medical care for sexual abuse and psycho-social counselling.

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speak to Andrew Boyd here:

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