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UN halts aid work in northeast Nigeria town after humanitarian workers killed

by Reuters
Saturday, 3 March 2018 15:15 GMT

UNHAS members evacuate bodies of three aid workers, who were killed during an attack in the town of Rann, at Maiduguri Airport, Nigeria March 2, 2018. OCHA/Yasmina Guerda Handout via REUTERS

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Aid work suspended in the town of Rann, which hosts a camp for 55,000 people displaced by the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations has suspended aid work helping tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria after an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants left three humanitarian workers dead and at least three others missing, possibly kidnapped.

The suspension of aid work in the town of Rann, which hosts a camp for 55,000 people displaced by the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency, was announced late on Friday in a statement from the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General.

The suspected militants killed at least 11 people, including the three aid workers, in an attack on a military barracks in Rann in Borno state late on Thursday, according to two security reports seen by Reuters.

"At the time of the attack, over 40 humanitarian workers were in Rann," said the UN statement. "All humanitarian personnel have been evacuated from Rann, and all humanitarian deliveries in the area have been temporarily suspended."

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres on Friday said it had suspended its work in Rann following the attack and evacuated both national and international staff.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay Writing by Paul Carsten Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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