Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations,

The United States and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, have condemned Wednesday’s killing of five aid workers in Borno by terrorists.

The executed persons includes staff of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Action Against Hunger, Rich International, International Rescue Committee, and a private security guard.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Boko Haram terrorists has on Wednesday released a 35-minute video as they executed five humanitarian workers abducted about a month ago along Maiduguri/Monguno road.

They killed the aid workers after a failed negotiation in which they demanded 500,000 dollars for their release.

Guterres in a statement by his spokesman, Mr Stéphane Dujarric, in New York on Thursday strongly condemned the killing, of the five civilians while expressing his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Nigeria.

“He calls on the Nigerian authorities to spare no effort in identifying and swiftly bringing to justice the perpetrators of these killings,’’ he said.

The UN chief reiterated that attacks against civilians, including aid workers, by a party in an armed conflict, were a violation of international humanitarian law.

He stressed the need for international human rights law and international humanitarian law to be fully respected, including the obligation to protect civilians.

In its own reaction, the U.S. Government through the Public Affairs Department of its Embassy in Abuja made the condemnation while commiserating with the victims families in a statement on Thursday.