The outrage that greeted Monday’s killing of 24-year-old midwife Hauwa Liman grew yesterday. Hauwa was working with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She was abducted at the Rann, Borno State Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in March.
Her captors killed her on Monday after issuing a threat to that effect 24 hours earlier. She, along with three others, was abducted by a faction of the Boko Haram terrorist group, the Islamic State West Africa Province.
The group killed another aid worker, Saifura Ahmed, last month. The fate of the third member of the team remains unknown. President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday undertook the grim task of speaking on the telephone with Mohammade Liman, Hauwa’s father, after the news of her death was broken to him. He also commiserated with ICRC President Peter Maurer.
President Buhari told Liman’s father that the government did everything possible to save his daughter’s life. The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, in a statement, quoted the President as saying that all the efforts to save Hauwa were unsuccessful.
He regretted that her commitment to helping victims of the Boko Haram insurgency ended in such a brutal way. The President praised the ICRC for the great work it had been doing in Nigeria by providing healthcare services to victims of insurgency in some of the most affected areas.
He urged the ICRC to continue its services in Nigeria, and not give up, despite the unfortunate and painful loss of its staff. According to the President, Nigeria needs the ICRC and the government will continue to do all it can to protect the organisation’s staff and other aid workers who are providing humanitarian services in the Northeast, which has been affected by almost a decade-long conflict.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for those responsible for the killing to be brought to justice. Guterres, in a statement issued in New York, said he was appalled, adding:”Those responsible for this killing must be brought to justice.”
The UN chief expressed his concern for the safety and well-being of the remaining hostages and called for their immediate release. The Secretary-General emphasised that all parties to the conflict must protect aid workers who provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the millions of people in need in the Northeast.
Liman’s mum still could not come to terms with her death. Speaking with Television Continental (TVC) yesterday, she expressed her belief that she was being kept somewhere and not dead. She, however, said if indeed she had been killed, her body should be brought for proper burial.
Read more at: http://thenationonlineng.net/we-tried-to-save-her-buhari-tells-slain-aid-workers-dad/
