Business Day

Red Cross pleads for workers

- Agency Staff /AFP

The Red Cross on Sunday appealed to Nigeria to secure the release of two health workers, as a deadline set by Boko Haram to kill them approached.

The Internatio­nal Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spoke out a month after another hostage kidnapped with them was executed by the jihadists.

“A deadline that could result in the killing of another healthcare worker is less than 24 hours away,” said the ICRC.

“Speed and urgency are critical,” it said.

The three female health workers were kidnapped on March 1 in the remote northeaste­rn town of Rann following an attack by the Islamic Stateaffil­iated Boko Haram faction.

The raid killed three other health workers and eight Nigerian soldiers.

Two of the kidnapped women, Hauwa Liman and Saifura Khorsa, worked for the Geneva-based humanitari­an charity while the third, Alice Loksha, worked for the UN children’s organisati­on Unicef.

There was no news of the trio until last month. Then the ICRC said it had received footage of Khorsa’s execution from the IS-supported Boko Haram faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

In the footage, ISWAP threatened to kill the other two health workers if its demands were not met.

“The ICRC asks all those involved with this case to avoid a repeat of that devastatin­g outcome,” said Mamadou Sow, ICRC’s head of operations in the Lake Chad region.

The ICRC called on ISWAP to show “mercy” and not kill two health workers “doing nothing but helping the communitie­s in northeast Nigeria”.

“Hauwa and Alice are medical workers who chose to work and help vulnerable communitie­s in Rann, an area affected by violence,” Sow said.

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