{"id":20365,"date":"2019-04-15T09:11:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T01:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=20365"},"modified":"2019-04-15T10:37:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T02:37:34","slug":"syria-icrc-pleas-for-information-on-a-new-zealand-nurse-and-two-syrians-abducted-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=20365","title":{"rendered":"Syria: ICRC pleas for information on a New Zealand nurse and two Syrians abducted in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"752\" height=\"407\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-zealand.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20372\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-zealand.jpg 752w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-zealand-300x162.jpg 300w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/new-zealand-600x325.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px\" \/><figcaption> New Zealand&#8217;s Louisa Akavi&nbsp; <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Geneva, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8211;  The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed Sunday for news of three staff members abducted in Syria in 2013,  a New Zealand nurse and two Syrian drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nurse Louisa Akavi was snatched along with drivers Alaa Rajab and Nabil Bakdounes while travelling in a Red Cross convoy delivering supplies to Idlib, in the northwest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Armed men stopped their convoy on October 13, 2013, and abducted seven people, four of whom were released the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ICRC said they believed they were abducted by Daesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur latest credible information indicates that Louisa was alive in late 2018,\u201d the group said in a statement from Geneva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe ICRC has never been able to learn more details about Alaa and Nabil, and their fate is not known.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe past five and a half years have been an extremely difficult time for the families of our three abducted colleagues,\u201d said the ICRC\u2019s operations director, Dominik Stillhart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLouisa is a true and compassionate humanitarian. Alaa and Nabil were committed colleagues and an integral part of our aid deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe call on anyone with information to please come forward. If our colleagues are still being held, we call for their immediate and unconditional release.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Akavi had carried out 17 field missions with the ICRC and the New Zealand Red Cross, the statement said. Rajab and Bakdounes were \u201cdedicated husbands and caring fathers\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The war in Syria, which began in 2011, has claimed more than 370,000 lives and forced millions of people to flee their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Kurdish-led SDF, backed by a US-led coalition, captured the last Daesh bastion in eastern Syria on March 23, and had detained thousands of suspected Daesh fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this could make it more difficult to find Akavi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are speaking out today to publicly honour and acknowledge Louisa\u2019s, Alaa\u2019s, and Nabil\u2019s hardship and suffering,\u201d the ICRC statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The organisation has 98 foreign workers and 580 Syrians working in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accuses Daesh of abducting thousands of people since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NNN-AGENCIES <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geneva, April 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8211; The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed Sunday for news of three staff members abducted in Syria in 2013, a New Zealand nurse and two Syrian drivers. Nurse Louisa Akavi was snatched along with drivers Alaa Rajab and Nabil Bakdounes while travelling in a Red Cross convoy delivering supplies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":20372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}