ICRC says aid worker kidnapped in Mogadishu

Somalia narrowly avoided famine in 2017 thanks to a major scale up of relief operations. Aid agencies warn the humanitarian situation remains critical. Keystone

Gunmen have kidnapped a German nurse working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Somalia, the Swiss-run aid agency said on Thursday.

Armed men broke into the ICRC residential compound in the Somali capital Mogadishu late Wednesday and abducted the female nurse.

“We are deeply concerned about the safety of our colleague,” said Daniel O’Malley, the deputy head of the ICRC delegation in 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.”

The Geneva-based organisation gave no details on the identity of the nurse or the gunmen in its statement but said it was in contact with various authorities to secure her release.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.

Aid workers are the regular target of abductions and attacks in the Horn of Africa nation, which suffered drought and famine-like conditions last year.

At least 30 humanitarian workers were killed in Somalia between 2016 and 2017, according to the United Nations. In 2017, more than 30 humanitarian aid workers were abducted.

Somalia is home to the Al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab extremist group which stages regular attacks in the capital and holds large swathes of the country.