Isis: 9-year-old pregnant after being gang-raped by militants could die

A Yazidi girl taken as a sex slave by Isis was raped by at least 10 men and could die if she delivers the baby, according to an aid worker.

She was taken to a refugee camp in Iraq after she and more than 200 Yazidi women, children and the elderly were freed near Kirkuk, northern Iraq after being held captive for more than eight months.

The child has now been taken out of Iraq by a Kurdish aid agency, according to the Toronto Star. She is now being treated by a medical charity in Germany.

Yousif Daoud, a Canada-based aid worker who has recently returned from the conflict zone, said the girl was "mentally and physically traumatised" by the abuse, with fears that she may not survive the ordeal if she carries the baby full-term.

Girl 'in very bad shape'

"The girl is so young she could die if she delivers a baby," she said. "Even a Caesarian section is dangerous."

There are concerns for the health of the girl. When she was found, the nine-year-old was "in very bad shape", Daoud said, who spoke under a pseudonym to avoid losing the trust of the Yazidis.

"She was sexually abused by no fewer than 10 men. Most of them were frontline fighters or suicide bombers who are given girls as a reward."

Although some Yazidi men have said that they would marry the women who return from the Islamic State, this is less likely if they are carrying their rapists' children.

"Sending back those girls and women is a way of shaming the whole community," said Daoud.

"I don't know what the future would be for their babies.

"The girls and women don't want them. They have suffered so much they just want to forget. If they are married, their husbands won't take them back if they are pregnant. And it's clear that the babies will never be accepted."

'Abuse' routine in war

No reason was given for the release of the prisoners, which took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.

Dr Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child Canada, says brutality toward women is a "pattern of abuse and intimidation" that is used routinely in war.

"These primeval mechanisms are being used to threaten, abuse and traumatise," she says. "It's an attempt to erase an entire generation. When you rape a girl, it's an entire family decimated, if not an entire community."

Children born from rape suffer from ongoing abuse and violence.

"Even at school they are stigmatised by teachers and fellow students. In Uganda, children who are a product of rape by [Lord's Resistance Army rebels] have been locked in cages or set on fire, because they are so closely associated with the aggressor and the trauma."