President of Nigeria Recommends Free Condoms for Military Personnel
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigeria's military leaders to "consider" distributing free condoms to their troops, Reuters reports. "You must not allow AIDS to ravage our armed forces," Obasanjo told officers during a one-day retreat. Obasanjo "promised" to implement a policy that would have the military stock condoms in barrack clinics to be "given freely to military personnel." Nigerian military leaders say that "hundreds" of soldiers returning from peace-keeping duty in Liberia and Sierra Leone were found to be HIV-positive, and "scores" of Nigerian soldiers have died from AIDS-related complications. Obasanjo said that soldiers should "either use [condoms] or abstain" from sex altogether (Chiahemen, Reuters, 8/4).
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