The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that six of its aid workers and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent had been kidnapped by gunmen in Syria, reported Al Jazeera Sunday.
“Six ICRC staff members and one member of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent have been abducted in Idlib in northwestern Syria,” ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told AFP at the ICRC’s Geneva base on Sunday.
“We don’t know who took them. It was unidentified armed men,” he added.
The road on which the members were travelling is notorious for kidnappings, Al Jazeera Omar Al Saleh reported. “We understand from talking to activists in that area there are a number of armed groups,” he said.
Magne Barth, head of the ICRC’s delegation in Syria, called for the immediate release of the members.
“Both the ICRC and the SARC work tirelessly to provide impartial humanitarian assistance for those most in need across Syria on both sides of the front lines, and incidents such as these potentially undermine our capacity to assist those who need us most,” she said in a statement released Sunday.
The team had reportedly traveled to Idlib on October 10 to assess the medical situation in the area and deliver supplies.