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Red Cross reveals nurse Louisa Akavi has been held in Syria since 2013

"From the moment Louisa and the others were kidnapped, every decision we made was to maximize the chances of winning their freedom."
Image: Red Cross worker Akavi is seen in this undated handout photo released by ICRC
Louisa Akavi was taken captive in 2013 in the city of Idlib in northwest Syria. It is believed she was offered for ransom and may have been used as a human shieldICRC / Reuters

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand's foreign minister confirmed Monday that a nurse has been held captive by the Islamic State group in Syria for almost six years, information long kept secret for fear her life might be at risk.

The status of nurse and midwife Louisa Akavi, now 62, is unknown, but her employer, the International Committee of the Red Cross, says it has received recent eyewitness reports suggesting she might be alive.

The New York Times on Sunday became the first media organization to name Akavi, ending a more than 5 ½-year news blackout imposed by New Zealand's government and the Red Cross with the cooperation of international media.

The collapse of the Islamic State group has raised hopes that Akavi and the two Syrian drivers kidnapped with her might now be discovered.

In a statement, the ICRC said that as recently as December, Akavi may have been seen by at lest two people at a clinic in Sousa, one of the Islamic State group's last outposts. There were also reported sightings in 2016 and 2017, Red Cross officials said.

"We continue to work together (with the Red Cross) to locate and recover her," New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. "This has been a uniquely complex and difficult case. Louisa went to Syria with the ICRC to deliver humanitarian relief to people suffering as a result of a brutal civil war and ISIS occupation."

Peters said New Zealand had sent a small multi-agency team, including special forces, to Iraq to gather information on Akavi.

Akavi was taken captive in 2013 in the city of Idlib in northwest Syria. It is believed she was offered for ransom and may have been used as a human shield. New Zealand's government believed at one point that she may have died. But there are hopes her medical skills might have caused her captors to spare her.

Akavi's family said they miss her and are proud of the work to which she's dedicated her life.

"We think about her every day and hope she feels that and finds strength in that," said a video statement issued by family spokesman Tuaine Robati. "We know she is thinking of us and that she will be worried about us too."

Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the ICRC, said the organization had decided to permit publication in the hope it would elicit new information on her whereabouts.

"We have not spoken publicly before today because from the moment Louisa and the others were kidnapped, every decision we made was to maximize the chances of winning their freedom," Stillhart said in a statement. "With Islamic State group having lost the last of its territory, we felt it was now time to speak out."

He said the collapse of the Islamic State group in Syria may mean new opportunities to learn more about Akavi's situation and the ICRC also feared it risked losing track of her in the aftermath of ISIS' collapse.