Women sit amid the ruins of a market blown up by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s Borno state in September. (Audu Marte/AFP/Getty Images) (AUDU MARTE/AFP/Getty Images)
This article has been updated.
Hauwa Mohammed Liman and Alice Loksha went to the Nigerian town of Rann to help.
The military outpost in Borno state houses about 80,000 refugees displaced by the nine-year-long Boko Haram insurgency. Liman and Loksha worked as nurses, helping to deliver babies and provide basic services.
In March, Rann was attacked by Boko Haram militants. They killed dozens, including three United Nations staff members. Liman and Loksha were kidnapped, as was another aid worker, Sifura Khorsa.
Khorsa, a 25-year-old nurse, was executed Sept. 16. At the time, Boko Haram warned that the other abductees would be killed in one month if its demands were not met.
Now, the government of Nigeria is confirming that at least one of the other two aid workers was killed by Boko Haram on Monday. In a statement issued in London, Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed described the killing as “dastardly, inhuman and ungodly.”
“The Federal Government did everything any responsible government should do to save the aid worker,” he said.
The statement did not identify the woman killed.
On Sunday, officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the women could be killed Monday. In a statement released Sunday, the ICRC begged the Nigerian government for help and the militants for mercy. “Speed and urgency are critical,” it wrote.
Addressing the kidnappers, the group wrote: “We urge you for mercy. We urge you not to kill another innocent health care worker who was doing nothing but helping the community in north-east Nigeria.”
Liman, 24, worked as a midwife at a government health-care center funded by the ICRC. Loksha worked as a nurse at a center supported by UNICEF.
Leah Sharibu, a Christian student who refused to convert to Islam and was abducted in February, is also being held by Boko Haram.
“The terrorists threatened to kill Leah in October if they don’t get any response to their demands. Time is running out — that is why I am calling on the government to keep talking to them,” Leah’s father, Nathan, told CNN. “Our daughter is facing a death sentence.”
Residents and aid workers say Boko Haram has continued to carry out deadly attacks on villagers and military officials. The Boko Haram insurgency has killed more that 20,000 people and displaced 2 million, according to Al Jazeera.
Borno has been hit particularly hard. More than half the state’s health-care facilities are closed. The open facilities are overwhelmed.
“We are concerned that many people in the region will not have access to medical support if the region becomes too dangerous for staff to operate,” Aleksandra Mosimann, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, told the New York Times.
Read more:
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Credit:Washington Post
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