Eight Years in Jihadist Hands: Where Is Sonja Nientiet?

German nurse Sonja Nientiet, 56, was kidnapped in Somalia eight years ago. She is still believed to be held by jihadists. Pressure is now growing on Berlin to do more to bring her home.

Nientiet was abducted in Mogadishu on 3 May 2018. She was working on a humanitarian mission for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the time. The abduction took place as she was leaving an ICRC building outside the heavily secured Green Zone around the airport in the Somali capital. According to the Red Cross, a guard working for a private security company was involved. The company had been contracted by the ICRC.

Nientiet was forced into a car and disappeared. A Kenyan Red Cross employee was also kidnapped at the time, but was released shortly afterwards. For the German nurse, it marked the start of a captivity that continues to this day.

Somalia has long been one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office warns of serious attacks causing numerous deaths and injuries. Even the secured Green Zone is repeatedly targeted. Anyone moving outside the area enters an environment where state control is limited and Islamist groups wield considerable power.

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A Case Lost From View

For years, there were almost no signs that Sonja Nientiet was alive. Many considered it possible that she was dead. Only in 2025 did her captors release a video. In it, Nientiet identified herself as a German citizen from Hamm and spoke about her deteriorating health. The video showed that the case was not closed. It had merely disappeared from view.

The family situation is particularly bitter. Nientiet’s mother, Christel, died in June 2024 without seeing her daughter again. The German nurse no longer has close relatives who could keep the case in the public eye over the long term. Friends and former colleagues therefore turned to the organization HAWAR.help.

The NGO has leveled serious accusations against the German government. As a human rights organization, it said it judged the government’s efforts in such cases only by results. After eight years of arbitrary captivity, HAWAR.help concluded that not enough was being done to bring Nientiet home.

That is the sore point in the case. The German government can point to secrecy, security risks and the need for quiet diplomacy. Yet the public can still see that Sonja Nientiet is not free after eight years.

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The Federal Foreign Office refers precisely to that line. As a matter of principle, the German government does not comment on abduction cases involving German nationals abroad. Behind that lies a sober calculation. Anyone who negotiates publicly becomes vulnerable to blackmail. Revealing details can endanger possible channels. Openly discussing ransom payments, pressure or military options may, in the worst case, give kidnappers new incentives.

HAWAR.help is not calling for a complete break with that approach, but for a different balance. The organization speaks of combining quiet diplomacy with loud activism. In other cases, it says, such an approach has helped. At the same time, it acknowledges that the Nientiet case is particularly difficult. It is not publicly known exactly who is holding her or what channels the German government may have to the kidnappers.

Between Rescue and Risk

A late-2024 report in the German tabloid Bild showed how little room for maneuver Berlin may have. According to the newspaper, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), located Nientiet with the help of radio surveillance. A secret rescue operation was then prepared with support from the Bundeswehr’s Special Forces Command and the US military.

The operation was stopped shortly before it was due to take place. Bild said that then Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) called off the mission because of fears that a rescue attempt could end in a bloodbath and that Nientiet could die.

The dilemma is therefore clear. If Berlin does not act visibly, it appears passive. If it resorts to military force, it risks getting the hostage killed. In Somalia in particular, such an operation would not be a cleanly planned raid, but a perilous balancing act in an area where armed groups, local loyalties and shifting security conditions make every mission unpredictable.

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No Clear Path to the Captors

The terror organization al-Shabaab is believed to be behind the abduction. Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees describes it as a militant Islamist movement founded in the 2000s with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Somalia. It is regarded as a regional branch of al-Qaeda. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the jihadists controlled about 30% of Somali territory at the end of 2025.

After the abduction, the ICRC reduced some of its activities in Somalia. The organization has not commented in detail on new security measures. Nor has it provided information on possible negotiations. A spokesman said it was doing everything possible to secure Nientiet’s swift and safe return.

Eight years after the abduction, the case remains a lesson in the limits of state power. Germany cannot disclose what is happening behind the scenes. Aid organizations cannot say what contacts exist. Relatives can no longer keep the pressure alive. And Sonja Nientiet remains missing.