Aid workers belonged to different humanitarian agencies, and a member of the security staff working with the team was among the hostages, said Eve Sabbagh, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance.
The UN said it had been trying to secure the release of the workers since June, when they were kidnapped in an obstacle while traveling between the city of Monguno and Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
Edward Kallon, coordinator of the UN agency in Nigeria, said humanitarian workers were increasingly becoming the target of armed groups in the violent attacks in the region.
“I strongly condemn all violence against humanitarian workers and the civilians they help. I am also concerned about the number of illegal vehicle checkpoints established by non-state armed groups along major supply routes,” Kallon said in the notice.
‘Barbaric act’
The International Rescue Committee said it was deeply saddened by the news, and that one of its staff was among those killed.
“We condemn this barbaric act,” the agency said, asking the killers to return the worker’s remains to his family.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also sent his condolences to the families of the workers and the agencies, his media assistant Garba Shehu said in a statement.
Buhari said the workers were killed by members of Boko Haram and promised that his administration was working to “eliminate” the militants from the northeast region of the country.
“It assures them that security agencies in the state will work closely with their organizations to implement measures to ensure that the kidnapping of personnel does not recur,” Shehu said.
Boko Haram militants and jihadist groups operating in northeast Nigeria have killed and kidnapped humanitarian workers during more than a decade of violence.
According to the international NGO Action Against Hunger, an armed group claimed that it had executed five humanitarian workers detained by militants for many months in 2019.
.
