The Red Cross is hopeful nurse abducted in 2013 by ISIS is still alive

Since her abduction in 2013, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the New Zealand government have kept the name of a nurse held by the Islamic State under wraps, afraid that if her identity was released, she would be in even more danger.

Now that ISIS has lost its last stronghold in Syria, the Red Cross believes it is safe to reveal her name: Louisa Akavi. The 62-year-old was kidnapped in Idlib, Syria, along with two Red Cross drivers, Nabil Bakdounes and Alaa Rajab, while headed to Damascus. There have been several credible sightings of Akavi over the last five years, with witnesses saying they saw her in Abu Kamal in 2016, Raqaa in 2017, and Mayadeen in 2018. In December, two people told the Red Cross they spotted Akavi working at a clinic in Sousa, one of the final villages held by ISIS.

U.S. officials told The New York Times that before Mosul was liberated from ISIS, Akavi may have been kept there with a British hostage, journalist John Cantlie, who is also possibly still alive. ISIS had asked the Red Cross for ransom multiple times, once even requesting $22.6 million. It was confirmed in 2014 Akavi was sharing a cell with American aid worker Kayla Mueller; a year later, ISIS said Mueller died in an airstrike.

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Akavi served in several war zones, including Iraq and Chechnya, and was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal. Her colleagues are now hoping she is living in the al-Hol detention center in northern Syria, where tens of thousands of ISIS supporters are being held. The Red Cross sends officials there weekly, hoping someone recognizes Akavi's photo, the Times reports, and a giant Red Cross flag has been raised in the middle of the camp, letting her knows it is safe to reveal her identity.