An aid worker, who was kidnapped along with five others in July, has been killed by a faction of Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeast.
The aid worker was a staff of Action Against Hunger.
A Nigerian conflict journalist Ahmad Salkida said the aid worker was killed because the Nigerian government deceived ISWAP.
“The group, in a horrific video of the execution, said it took the action because “the government deceived them” following months of what is now known as secret negotiations between a team of intermediaries and unnamed officials,” Salkida tweeted on Wednesday.
Just In: #ISWAP has executed one of the six aid workers, working with the Action Against Hunger that were abducted two months ago in Borno. One of the male aid workers was executed at close range in a short video clip seen by this reporter. pic.twitter.com/JM6DjMTxx2
— Ahmad Salkida (@A_Salkida) September 25, 2019
ISWAP kidnapped the six aid workers, one woman and five men, near the town of Damasak, Borno State on July 18, 2019, during an attack by the terrorist group that left another aid worker dead.
The Nigerian presidency said in a statement that the government was negotiating for the release of the kidnapped aid workers.
But the relationship between Action Against Hunger and the Nigerian military is not chummy. The Maiduguri offices of the NGO was recently closed by the army.
The army accused it of “aiding and abetting terrorists”, in a move the charity said endangered humanitarian assistance to millions of people.
“The subversive and actions of the NGO Action Against Hunger persisted despite several warnings to desist from aiding and abetting terrorists and their atrocities,” the army said in a statement on Thursday.
In a video posted shortly after the abduction in July, the only woman in the team, who identified herself as Grace Taku, appealed to the government to secure their freedom.
In the footage, five men sat around her, some with their heads bowed. Behind them is a sheet with the logo of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
“We were caught by this army called the Calipha,” she said, before asking that the Nigerian government and Action Against Hunger secure their release. “We don’t know where we are.”
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