President Muhammadu Buhari and the international community have unreservedly condemned the attack on humanitarian workers in Rann, Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents. Buhari In a statement on Friday by his Spokesman Femi Adesina said that the attack more than ever shows Boko Haram insurgents as godless, brutish, and utterly to be despised.

“As I have always maintained, no true religion advocates hurting the innocent. To now further attack and kill those offering humanitarian aid is the height of bestiality. It is odious before both God and man,” the President said, while sympathising with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies working at Rann, and in the country generally.

“President Buhari affirms that such cowardly attacks can only bolster the determination of government to bring the Boko Haram insurgency to a decisive end, in the shortest possible time,” the statement said.

The United States and other members of the international community on Friday also condemned the attack that killed three Nigerian aid workers.

The U.S. Embassy in a statement in Abuja pledged its support to Nigerians, “as they bravely work to ensure their nation’s security.”

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to every family whose loved ones have been affected by this and other terrorist acts.

“We voice our heartfelt solidarity with all those humanitarian workers who work every day to help Nigerians affected by the ongoing insurgency.”

US also expressed sympathy for “all those security forces and Nigerian citizens working together to end this terrorist violence,” the Embassy said.

The Embassy said that the U.S. remained firmly committed to ensuring humanitarian workers were protected and able to do their lifesaving work.

In the same vein, the Coordinator, UN Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, also condemned the killing of three workers by the insurgents.

Kallon in a statement by OCHA Head of communications, Samantha Newport, on Friday in Abuja said that apart from those who died and the injured, a female nurse was missing, feared abducted.

He said that two of the deceased were contractors with the international organisation on migration while the third victim was a medical doctor employed as a third party consultant with UNICEF.

The deceased were working as coordinators in the camp for 55,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) who fled their homes as a result of on-going crisis in the north-east.

“Aid workers put their lives on the line every single day to provide emergency assistance to vulnerable women, children and men.

“Our deepest condolences go to the families of the victims and our brave colleagues and we call on authorities to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice,” said Kallon.

He said that the UN was also very concerned about other civilians who might have been injured or killed in the attack.

The coordinator noted that the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s north-east, that had spilled over into the Lake Chad region was one of the most severe in the world today.

According to him about 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2018 in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe and 6.1 million targeted for humanitarian assistance.

“Now in its ninth year, the crisis shows no sign of abating. Close to 80,000 people, including 55,000 internally displaced persons, currently reside in Rann and are supported with humanitarian assistance. (NAN)

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