Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, one of the other two abducted nurses, who also worked with ICRC, was killed a month ago after spending six and a half months in captivity, in what the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria called a “cowardly, heinous and despicable act”.
According to news reports, Alice Loksha, who worked with UNICEF in Rann, remains in the hands of the armed group who seems to have announced its intention to keep her “as a slave”.
Expressing “concern for the safety and well-being of the remaining hostages”, Mr. Guterres called “for their immediate release” and emphasized that “all parties to the conflict must protect aid workers who provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the millions of people in need in north-east Nigeria”.
According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) the international response in Rann is providing life-saving assistance – including food, safe water, shelter and medical care – to over 60,000 internally displaced persons, and millions in the rest of the north-east of the country. Close to 3,000 aid workers are present in the north-east, the majority of whom are Nigerian nationals.
The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria's north-east is one of the most severe in the world today, with 7.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 6.1 million of whom targeted for humanitarian assistance in 2018.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations (UN).
