PROFESSOR Chidi Odinkalu, former director general of National Human Rights Commission, flays the killing of Hauwa Liman, an aide worker, by Boko Haram

By Anayo Ezugwu

Professor Chidi Odinkalu, former director general, National Human Rights Commission, has joined the world in condemning killing of Hauwa Mohammed Liman, aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, by Boko Haram. He said the killing of Liman and every other humanitarian aid worker in the world is a war crime.

In an interview with Realnews in Lagos, October 19, Odinkalu said the crisis in the northeast was getting complicated every day. He said: “There is food and climate change crisis in the region and there is likelihood that the food crisis, partly caused by the herders/farmers crisis in the meddle belt in will not end soon.

“In all these, for the terrorists to target humanitarians, who are trying to provide assistance deepens the crisis. We have a massive force displacement crisis in the northeast with close to four million people displaced and about five million in a food security crisis.

“The reason why Boko Haram is targeting humanitarian aids is because they know that by doing so, it deepens sufferings and makes it less likely for assistance to reach those who need it. There is also a sense that the government can do a lot more than it has done or is doing and can collaborate a lot more with the humanitarians,” he said.

According to Odinkalu, this year the humanitarian agencies have had considerable difficulties trying to renew their registrations and operations in Nigeria. This, he said, exposed them more to danger. “My opinion is, if not nothing else in memory of Hauwa Mohammed Liman, we can get involved in more collaborative arrangement between government and humanitarian agencies to try and prevent this kind of occurrence.”

Boko Haram sect executed Liman on Monday, October 15, about a month after they killed Saifura Khorsa, a nurse with the ICRC, who was abducted alongside Liman and Alice Loksha in Rann, Borno State, on March 1. As a result of the killing, the ICRC and the Amnesty International have called on the federal government to secure the release of other persons and pleaded with the captors to let go their hostages.

The Red Cross had raised the alarm about the Boko Haram ISWAP faction’s threat to murder Liman within 24 hours. The ICRC, in a press release by its spokesman, Aleksandra Mosimann, said, “A second health worker held hostage in Nigeria has been murdered. It’s utterly devastating that we have to write that sentence. The ICRC received information indicating that Hauwa Liman has been killed by her captors in a despicable act of cruelty. Hauwa is the second abducted health worker in Nigeria to be murdered in the last month.

“Hauwa, 24, was full of life, becoming a midwife at an early age. People who knew her described her as a sociable, dynamic and enthusiastic woman who was much loved by family and friends. She was truly dedicated to her work helping vulnerable women in her family’s home area.

“The ICRC made sustained and committed efforts to secure the release of the three healthcare workers, including a last-minute plea for mercy on Sunday, to the Islamic State West Africa Province group to no avail.”

The ICRC regional director for Africa, Patricia Danzi, said, “The news of Hauwa’s death has broken our hearts. We appealed for mercy and an end to such senseless murders. How can it be that two female health care workers were killed back-to-back? Nothing can justify this.

“Hauwa and Saifura’s deaths are not only a tragedy for their families, but they will also be felt by thousands of people in Rann and other conflict-affected areas of North-East Nigeria where accessing health care remains a challenge.”

– Oct. 26, 2018 @ 12:35 GMT /