The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) wants two health workers abducted by militants in Nigeria, released.
The health workers were abducted in March this year by Islamic State in West Africa. The Red Cross says their release is crucial in the coming hours since they could be killed.
The organization in a statement pleaded for mercy and urged Nigeria’s government to intervene.
The medical workers Hauwa Mohammed Liman and Alice Loksha were abducted while working in the town of Rann.
Liman according to the Red Cross was working as a midwife at an ICRC-supported hospital, while Loksha was nurse working with UNICEF.
“Speed and urgency are critical. A deadline that could result in the killing of another healthcare worker is less than 24 hours away,” the statement said.
This is Hauwa. She’s 24 years old. A midwife working with us in northern Nigeria.
In March, she was kidnapped. Tomorrow, she could be executed.
Hauwa is a daughter, a sister, a friend. A young woman with a future ahead of her.
We are pleading for her life to be spared. pic.twitter.com/XSsFHXc2SP
— Peter Maurer (@PMaurerICRC) October 14, 2018
Red Cross did not give further details about the deadline the militants gave requiring the urgency it mentioned.
The statement from Patricia Danzi, director of ICRC operations in Africa however said “We urge you: spare and release these women. They are a midwife, a nurse and a student. Like all those abducted, they are not part of any fight.”
Islamic State in West Africa in 2016 split from the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. The Islamic State West Africa is reported to have killed hundreds of soldiers in attacks in northeastern Nigeria recently.
Please join me and @ICRC in pleading for the lives of 2 women facing execution at the hands of the Islamic State, in a matter of hours. In the name of everything holy, I am appealing for the lives of Hauwa and Alice to be spared. #Mercy https://t.co/WbSqqgeKga
— Isha Sesay (@IamIshaSesay) October 14, 2018
Boko Haram on the other hand continues to wreck havoc across Nigeria killing thousands and displacing millions.
Source: Africafeeds.com
