Geoffrey Ocana, the Lamwo district probation officer told URN on Tuesday evening that the teenagers were sexually abused during the nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease in the country.
Seventy-eight
teenage girls suffering from the nodding syndrome disease in Lamwo district are
pregnant. Records from Lamwo district Probation department shows that
the girls aged between 15 and 17 years were sexually abused and impregnated by
unknown people.
Geoffrey Ocana, the Lamwo district probation officer told
URN on Tuesday evening that the teenagers were sexually abused during the
nationwide lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of the
coronavirus disease in the country.
He, however, says that two of the
girls died with their babies due to birth and other health complications. He says
that they recently registered another case involving a 15-year-old nodding
disease victim in Palabek Kal Sub County who was defiled by her biological
father.
Ocana explained that the cases of sexual abuse against these
girls are on the rise due to negligence by the parents and guardians of the
victims, the vulnerability of the girls to perpetrators and loss of hope by the
community members in the children.
James Kidega Nabinson, the Lamwo Resident
District Commissioner told URN that his office is also investigating five
parents for reportedly offering their underage girls with the nodding disease
to men in exchange for money and sex.
Derrick Kiiza, the Executive Director of Mental Health Uganda, says that persons
with mental illness cannot negotiate for safer sex yet sometimes have high
libidos and sexual urge hence falling preys to abusers.
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There are currently 337 children suffering from the nodding
syndrome in Lamwo district. Nodding Syndrome is an epileptic
disorder characterized by repeated nodding of the head, seizures, mental
retardation and growth. It affects otherwise previously normal children aged
3–18 years, with a slight preponderance for the male child.