ICRC pleads for release of German nurse held in Somalia for seven years

"We are deeply concerned about her health, and we are doing everything in our power to secure her safe release," said an ICRC spokesperson. Keystone-SDA

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called for the release of Sonja Nientiet, one of its nurses who was kidnapped in Somalia in 2018. A video showing her was shared on social media on Thursday.

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“The ICRC confirms that it has seen the recent video in which our colleague Sonja Nientiet pleads for her release,” ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon told the Keystone-ATS news agency. “We are currently analysing it. We are deeply concerned about her health, and we are doing everything in our power to secure her safe release,” he said.

In the video, which lasts just over five minutes and in which only her face can be seen under the clothes she is wearing, the German woman asks her country and her family to work for her release. The references she makes to a recent attack on Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud suggest that the video dates from this week.

The attack was claimed by Al-Shabab, al-Qaeda-linked fighters who have been battling the Somali government for over 15 years.

“We have continued to call for Sonja to be released immediately, unconditionally and in good health,” said the ICRC spokesperson, adding that the organisation is doing everything possible to ensure her release.

For the ICRC, the video is “difficult to watch”, said Cardon. But it also gives hope of a possible release. On the other hand, the spokesman does not wish to give any further details about the abduction and its circumstances, or about any possible contacts with the kidnappers.

The ICRC staff member was abducted in May 2018 from the organisation’s offices in Mogadishu. Somalis working for the ICRC told AFP at the time that the kidnappers had entered through a door at the back and taken the nurse away in a vehicle.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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