Boko Haram kills abducted Red Cross official in Borno

Boko Haram terrorists have killed one of the health workers kidnapped from Kala-Balge, Borno State.

Saifura Khorsa, a 25-year-old midwife with the International Committee of Red Cross was kidnapped along with two other health workers in Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government Area of Borno State in March this year.

In a statement signed by the spokesman for the ICRC, Aleksandra Mosimann, on Monday, the organisation described the action as sad and called for the immediate release of the two others still in captivity.

The statement read, “The International Committee of the Red Cross condemns in the strongest terms the tragic killing of its abducted colleague Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa.

“It is appealing to the armed group to immediately release a second ICRC midwife and another health-care worker taken in North-Eastern Nigeria in March.”

The statement quoted Eloi Fillion, the head of the ICRC delegation in Abuja, describing the murder as devastating.

Fillion said, “Saifura moved to Rann to selflessly help those in need. Our thoughts are with her family and other loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.

“At the time of their abduction, Saifura, as well as our colleague Hauwa Mohammed Liman and Alice Loksha, a nurse working in a UNICEF-supported centre, were providing essential antenatal care to communities in Rann, whose population has more than doubled after an influx of people fleeing the violence.

“We urge those still holding our colleague Hauwa and Alice to release these women. Like Saifura, they are not part of the fight. They are a midwife and a nurse. They are daughters, a wife, and a mother – women with families that depend on them.

“Their families and friends miss them dearly and will not give up the hope of seeing them again soon. There is no ideology or religious law that could justify doing any harm to them.”