A nurse working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been abducted in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the organization has confirmed.
“We are deeply concerned about the safety of our colleague,” said a statement from Daniel O’Malley, ICRC’s deputy head of delegation for Somalia. “She is a nurse who was working every day to save lives and improve the health of some of Somalia’s most vulnerable people.”
A spokesman for the Somali Security Ministry, Abdulaziz Ali Ibrahim, tells VOA that the woman was abducted from the ICRC compound.
Ibrahim says the woman is a German national and identified her as Sonja Nientiet.
ICRC says the abduction happened around 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday night when armed men entered the ICRC compound in Mogadishu.
The ICRC uses private security guards. Neighbors said they did not hear any confrontation or gunshots from the compound.
Ibrahim says police have recovered a vehicle used by the abductors. “We recovered the vehicle but not the woman, they transferred [her] to another vehicle,” he said.
ICRC said it’s in contact with authorities to try to secure her release.
“It is not appropriate to provide any additional information at this stage,” said an ICRC statement.
– Harun Maruf I VOA
