MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Islamic extremists released a video Wednesday showing the slayings of five people, who the president later said were aid workers abducted in northeastern Nigeria last month.
Their abductions in June came around the same time that a Boko Haram splinter group said it would begin targeting Nigerians who work for international aid groups as well as those who help the military.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari issued a statement identifying the victims as staff members of the countrys State Emergency Management Agency and the international charities Action Against Hunger, Rich International and International Rescue Committee.
Buhari vowed that his government will continue to do all it can to ensure that every remaining vestige of Boko Haram is wiped out completely from northeastern Nigeria and that the perpetrators of this atrocity face the law.
Security has long been a concern for aid groups operating in northeastern Nigeria, where humanitarian workers have been kidnapped and killed during Boko Harams decade-long insurgency.
Those concerns have deepened since the splinter faction warned it would target civilians who help humanitarian groups. The splinter group previously was not known to target Muslim civilians.
The slayings announced Wednesday come as northeastern Nigeria’s humanitarian needs remain dire. The U.N. World Food Program is warning that 3 million people face hunger in the region, while some 1.9 million people have been displaced by the jihadist violence.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Comments
0 comment