UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the killing in north-eastern Nigeria of three doctors from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Ban-moon called the attack and other recent incidents of violence against health workers “unacceptable’’.
The three doctors were reportedly working at a government-run hospital in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state. They were killed over the weekend.
On Friday, nine female polio vaccination workers were also shot dead in northern Nigerian city of Kano.
Similar attacks on health workers have taken place in Pakistan in recent months.
“Those killed were working selflessly to provide basic life-saving interventions to the most vulnerable people.
“Such attacks severely limit health workers’ access to the populations who need them most and could have devastating effects in the fight to improve the health of people everywhere.
“These acts of outrageous violence toward health workers around the world are unacceptable,’’ Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
The Secretary-General, however, encouraged all countries to protect health workers so that they could continue to better the health of populations and save lives.