Red Cross says Boko Haram has killed aid worker in Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - Boko Haram extremists have killed a Red Cross worker who was abducted earlier this year during an attack in the Kala Balge government area in northern Nigeria’s Borno State, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.

“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 health care 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.

“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.