The women and girls rescued from Boko Haram are pregnant.

234 girls were rescued from a terrorist group. All but 20 were visibly pregnant.

Last Thursday, Nigerian military rescued 234 female hostages held by radical Islamist group Boko Haram. The incredible operation followed a similar rescue last Tuesday of 293 women and girls, after the military captured three insurgent camps inside the Sambisa Forest in the country’s northeast.

Both those rescue missions are wonderful news, particularly following more than a year of searching and hoping for the safe return of the abducted school girls from the village of Chibok — a horrifying incident that sparked the #saveourgirls hashtag and protests across the world.

But in disturbing news, a United Nations agency has confirmed that at least 214 of the woman and girls rescued on Thursday are pregnant — and those are just the ones whose bumps are already visible.

A statement released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which promotes rights to health and equal opportunity, including during during pregnancy and childbirth, confirmed the news.

“A large number of girls and women rescued from Boko Haram have been found to be pregnant,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added separately. “We do not know yet the total number of pregnant girls among those rescued.

“The screening is still ongoing.”

UNFPA and the Borno State Ministry of Health are now providing counselling, psychosocial support and health services to the rescued women in internally displaced persons (IDP) in northeast Nigeria.

It’s not yet clear whether the Chibok school girls abducted in April 2014 are among the rescued women and children.

The women’s pregnancy follows reports that women and girls kidnapped by the insurgents are routinely raped and forced to marry Boko Haram fighters, as International Business Times reports.

The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has said in a video released in November: “The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off.”

In another chilling video released in Mary 2014, Shekau boastingly announced that he planned to treat the captured girls like “slaves”. He said:

Boko Haram leader Imam Abubakar Shekau.

UNFPA executive director Professor Babatunde Osotimehin said the rescued women and girls now required assistance to reintegrate in society, International Business Times reports.

“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.”

The Sambisa forest reserve is located in Chibok state, in north-east Nigeria.

In March, the Nigerian army started a ground and aerial offensive against the insurgents, and a fresh influx of armoury allowed the Nigerian military to stage these recent rescue operations.

Boko Haram in March pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which which rules a self-declared “caliphate” in areas of Syria and Iraq. Boko Haram wants to establish a caliphate of its own in Nigeria.

At least 214 of the 234 women and girls rescued from Boko Haram are pregnant.