Abducted midwife killed in Nigeria named

GENEVA: The Red Cross on Tuesday named a health worker abducted and murdered by her captors in Nigeria as 24-year-old midwife Hauwa Mohammed Liman and said it had refused to pay a ransom for her release.

A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters it had decided not to pay a ransom as it would set a dangerous precedent for the 16,000 aid workers it deploys in 80 countries worldwide.

The Nigerian government on Monday said a medical aid worker held hostage by IS in West Africa (ISWA) militants was killed after a deadline they set expired.

The ICRC said in a statement it received information that Liman, who worked in a hospital supported by the Geneva-based aid agency, had been killed “in a despicable act of cruelty”.

The agency had issued a public appeal to her captors at the weekend to spare her life after a threat was received. “When health care workers are captured or abducted there is always a demand,” Patricia Danzi, ICRC regional director for Africa, said on Tuesday.

“We are a humanitarian organisation so we cannot enter into such kind of negotiations. So we always ask for unconditional release. And that’s what we did. That was the plea. “We believe that there is no cause that can justify an execution of a young healthcare staff (worker),” she added.