The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Sunday that terrorists from the Islamic State’s West African province group (ISWAP) who are currently holding two ICRC healthcare workers captive plan to execute the hostages within 24 hours.
The two workers, Hauwa Mohammed Liman and Alice Loksha, were captured in March of this year while working in Rann, northern Nigeria.
According to Reuters, the two workers were abducted along with a third ICRC midwife, who was executed by the group in September. The terrorists are also holding 15-year-old Leah Sharibu, who is a schoolgirl from Dapchi that the terrorists kidnapped in February.
“Hauwa and Alice are medical workers who chose to work and help vulnerable communities in Rann, an area heavily affected by violence”, said Mamadou Sow, the head of ICRC’s Operations in the Lake Chad Basin via a press release. “The town’s population has more than doubled because of the conflict, while most local health-care staff have fled. These women were providing essential and life-saving services to thousands of people, displaced and resident alike. All they sought to do was to help.” (Related: Islamic State Finds A Familiar Place To Regroup With Devastating Effects)
There have been no reports of what the terrorists demand for the release of the hostages.
“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,” said Patricia Danzi, director of ICRC Operations in Africa in a press release. “They are daughters and sisters, one is a mother — women with their futures ahead of them, children to raise, and families to return to.”