Boko Haram faction kills second aid worker in Nigeria

 


An aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been killed in Nigeria by Islamist militants who kidnapped her last March.

Hauwa Liman, a midwife, was killed days after kidnappers set a deadline.

The ICRC said it was devastated by the news. The Nigerian government called the murder "inhuman and ungodly".

Ms Liman was taken with two others in the northern Nigerian town of Rann last March. Fellow midwife Saifura Ahmed Khorsa was killed last month.

A 15-year-old schoolgirl is being held by the same militant group, Islamic State's West Africa Province, which is affiliated to the Islamic State group and is a faction of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.

The girl is one of 110 who were kidnapped in the northern town of Dapchi last February. Most of the other students were freed but the girl, who reportedly refused to convert to Islam, remains in captivity.

'Bad for aid workers'
Ms Liman, Ms Khorsa and Alice Loksha, a nurse, were working with internally displaced people in Rann in Borno State, the epicentre of militant activity, when they were abducted in March.

Last month, the ICRC received a video showing the killing of Ms Khorsa.

A local Nigerian reporter said he had seen a video showing Ms Liman being shot at close range.

Patricia Danzi, the ICRC's regional director, said there was no justification for the "execution of innocent young healthcare workers" and she feared for its implication on their work in the region.

"It is actually bad news for all of us, for the family, for the humanitarian communities, for the health personnel and for all the women, daughters and mothers of Northern Nigeria and far beyond," she told the BBC.

Nigerian Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the government was "deeply pained" by news of the killing, but added it would "keep the negotiations open" and continue to work to free Ms Loksha and the schoolgirl.

BBC

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