Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Islamist militants kidnap at least one NGO worker in Nigeria, sources say

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, July 19 (Reuters) - Islamist insurgents have kidnapped at least one person working for an international aid organisation, Action Against Hunger, in northeastern Nigeria, sources said on Friday.

The abduction comes nine months after Islamic State’s West Africa branch executed a Red Cross aid worker who was kidnapped from another town in northeastern Nigeria in March 2018 .

The cases raise concerns about the targeting of humanitarian staff in the region’s decade-long insurgency, triggered by Boko Haram militants.

In the latest attack, the assailants killed a driver and abducted six or seven others travelling in a convoy on Thursday near the town of Damasak in the northeastern state of Borno, the sources said.

The sources gave varying details on how many of the abducted were working for Action Against Hunger, with numbers ranging from one to four people. It was not immediately clear whether any of those kidnapped were foreigners.

Action Against Hunger declined to provide immediate comment. (Reporting by Maiduguri and Paul Carsten in Abuja; editing by Larry King)

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider
Daily Maverick Elections Toolbox

Download the Daily Maverick Elections Toolbox.

+ Your election day questions answered
+ What's different this election
+ Test yourself! Take the quiz