Louisa Akavi
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Louisa Akavi is a New Zealand Red Cross nurse and recipient of the rarely awarded Florence Nightingale Medal. Akavi was kidnapped in Syria in October 2013 and subsequently taken hostage by Islamic State forces in May 2014. Akavi's captivity remained a tightly held secret by the New Zealand Government and media for five years. On 15 March 2019, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) disclosed her identity following the fall of the Islamic State's last stronghold in Syria.[1][2][3][4] New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed that the New Zealand Government is still trying to rescue and bring her home.[2][5][6]
Louisa Akavi is a New Zealander of Cook Islander descent. She was born in Rarotonga and grew up in Porirua, a large urban area 20 minutes north of the capital, Wellington, New Zealand. Akavi completed her training at Wellington Hospital in 1977 and then worked as a staff nurse for two years. She later traveled to Scotland to do midwifery training and also worked for two years in London. After returning to New Zealand, Akavi worked at Wellington Hospital before joining the New Zealand Red Cross.[7][8]
After joining the Red Cross, Akavi worked in several countries including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Somalia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Bosnia, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Chechnya. While on assignment in Chechnya in 1996, Akavi survived an attack on the ICRC Hospital of Novye Atagi which claimed the lives of six other Red Cross workers including fellow New Zealander Sheryl Thayer. In 1999, Akavi was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Red Cross' highest honour. In 2003, Akavi went on a Red Cross assignment in Iraq. In 2013, she went on another assignment to Syria during the Syrian Civil War.[7][8]
Kidnapping and captivity
On 13 October 2013, the then 62-year old Louisa Akavi was part of a Red Cross convoy consisting of seven ICRC workers including two drivers who were kidnapped by armed gunmen near the town of Saraqeb in Syria's Idlib Governorate.[7][1] While the other hostages were released, Akavi and the two Syrian drivers Alaa Rajab and Nabil Bakdounes were not. As of April 2019, the status and whereabouts of the two Syrian drivers remain unknown.[9][10] According to The Guardian, Akavi was on her 17th mission with the Red Cross.[3]
The ICRC issued a televised press release but avoided identifying the names and nationalities of the kidnapped workers. The New Zealand Government was made aware of Akavi's kidnapping but did not publicise her case to avoid endangering her and encouraging her captors to issue ransom demands. The then-Foreign Minister Murray McCully also ruled out paying ransom demands, citing New Zealand's policy of not paying ransoms to terrorist groups. According to McCully, the Fifth National Government received no direct communications from her captors.[1] The ICRC also reportedly received a proof of life from Akavi's captors in 2014, which is regarded as a precursor to a ransom. The Red Cross also has a policy of not paying ransoms. It also kept Akavi's captivity a secret in the hope of a "positive outcome."[3]
One of her captors was reportedly Mohammed Emwazi, the British Arab national known as "Jihadi John." Akavi was also reportedly held captive alongside several other Western hostages including the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and the aid workers David Haines and Kayla Mueller, who were subsequently murdered by their ISIS captors.[7][1]
Akavi reportedly befriended Mueller while in ISIS captivity but the two were later separated. In July 2014, a failed US operation to rescue both women resulted in ISIS threats to execute both women.[1][3] While Mueller later died in ISIS captivity, Akavi was reportedly kept alive due to her nursing skills and put to work in an ISIS-controlled hospital by late 2016; making her one of ISIS's longest surviving hostages alongside British journalist John Cantlie and Italian Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio.[1]