Boko Haram executes aid worker in video, says Christian girl Leah Sharibu Is next

Originally published in Urban Christian News

Boko Haram extremists in Nigeria have executed a female aid worker on video and warned that others, including a Christian teen girl, are next.

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The video, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, was released by the Barnawi faction of Boko Haram. In it, the terrorists tie up and shoot from behind 25-year-old Saifura Husseini Ahmed, a midwife with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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Ahmed had been abducted back in March along with another ICRC worker and a UNICEF nurse. An unnamed radical describes the video as a “message of blood,” and accuses the Nigerian government of ignoring written and audio messages.

The man warns that “the other nurse and midwife will be executed in similar manner in one month, including Leah Sharibu,” referring to the schoolgirl who was taken in February.

Sharibu, who has refused to renounce her Christian faith and embrace Islam as a condition for her freedom, has become the face of several international campaigns around the world.

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Eloi Fillion, the head of the ICRC delegation in Abuja, said the relief group is “devastated” by the murder of its worker.

“Saifura moved to Rann to selflessly help those in need. Our thoughts are with her family and other loved ones at this incredibly difficult time,” Fillion said.

He urged the captors to release the other women, colleague Hauwa Mohammed Liman and UNICEF’s Alice Loksha.

“Like Saifura, they are not part of the fight. They are a midwife and a nurse. They are daughters, a wife, and a mother — women with families that depend on them,” he said.

“Their families and friends miss them dearly and will not give up the hope of seeing them again soon. There is no ideology or religious law that could justify doing any harm to them.”

Boko Haram has been killing Christians, Muslims and other civilians in its battle against the Nigerian government since 2009, and has bombed churches and mosques, seeking to drive out all Christian believers from the country.

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