The International Committee of the Red Cross, Monday, confirmed the death of an aid worker abducted earlier this year during a Boko Haram attack in the Kala Balge Local Government Area, Borno State.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross condemns in the strongest terms the tragic killing of its abducted colleague Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa,” the group said in a statement.
Khorsa was kidnapped in March along with two other health workers after an attack on a military facility in the town of Rann in Kala Balge area that left at least four soldiers and police officers dead.
The Red Cross called for the immediate release of the two others still being held, who it said were a midwife and a healthcare worker.
Eloi Fillion, head of the Red Cross delegation in Abuja, said Khorsa had moved to Rann to “selflessly to help those in need.” Fillion said the three were providing essential pre-natal care for people in Rann, whose population has more than doubled recently from people fleeing violence in the region.
“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 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,” the Red Cross statement said.
Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and kidnapped thousands in its nine-year insurgency.
