Austria – Report 24, Aug. 16, 2025
On the evening of May 2, 2018, then 48-year-old Sonja Nientiet was abducted from the premises of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mogadishu, Somalia. German special forces located her in the hands of jihadists and planned the rescue. But then-Foreign Minister Maas prohibited the operation. When it comes to protecting the lives of German citizens, the German government shows no interest in acting.
For more than seven years, Sonja Nientiet, a German nurse from Hamm, has been living an unimaginable fate in the hands of Somali jihadists. On May 2, 2018, the then 48-year-old was kidnapped from the grounds of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mogadishu—presumably by the al-Shabaab militia, a terror group affiliated with al-Qaeda. A recently surfaced video from March 2025 shows the weakened hostage desperately pleading for help. But the German government remains silent, and the public seems to have largely forgotten the case. What happened, and why is there still no rescue?
Sonja Nientiet, an experienced humanitarian worker, had been active with the ICRC since 2014 in crisis regions such as Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Somalia, she trained locals in first aid. A selfless act of humanity in a country torn apart by civil war, terror, and poverty. On the evening of May 2, 2018, armed Islamist “holy warriors” stormed the ICRC compound, abducted Nientiet through a back entrance, and fled in a vehicle. Somali authorities suspect that an ICRC security guard collaborated with the kidnappers, which makes the betrayal all the more bitter.
Since then, Nientiet had disappeared without a trace—until a video in March 2025 sparked both hope and shock. In it, the 54-year-old, visibly frail, speaks English with a German accent. She describes her worsening health and begs the German government as well as her family to do everything to secure her release. “The hope of seeing my loved ones again keeps me alive,” she says in tears. Background sounds suggest normal village life—a cynical contrast to her captivity.
What is shocking is that a rescue would have been possible. According to reports from Bild, the German Intelligence Service (BND) had determined Nientiet’s location after two years and prepared a liberation operation. But then-Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) stopped the mission, fearing a “bloodbath” and the death of the hostage. This decision is heavily criticized today, especially by Nientiet’s friend Olga Platzer, who asks: “What could be worse than letting Sonja die in captivity?”
