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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)

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