Americas

Obama yet to donate to slain girl’s charity: family

White House spokesman anticipates Obamas 'would make a financial contribution to continue supporting' Kayla’s Hands

Michael Hernandez  | 26.08.2016 - Update : 26.08.2016
Obama yet to donate to slain girl’s charity: family

Washington DC

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

The father of an American aid worker who died tragically in Syria said Friday that President Barack Obama has not fulfilled a key pledge he made after his daughter’s death two years ago.

Speaking to ABC News, Carl Mueller said that Obama promised that he would make an anonymous donation to his daughter’s foundation 17 months ago, but that no such anonymous donation has been made.

“I’m still waiting for that donation, Mr. President,” he said in an interview that aired during the network’s Good Morning American morning program.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters he anticipates the Obamas “would make a financial contribution to continue supporting” Kayla’s Hands, the foundation.

He said that the Mueller’s “pain and grief” is “entirely understandable”.

Kayla Mueller was subjected to torture, slave labor and was raped by Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she died February 2015.

The exact circumstances of her death are still uncertain. Daesh said she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, but the U.S. has doubted that account.

The extremist group abducted Mueller 18 months earlier on Aug. 4, 2013 while she was providing humanitarian aid with the Doctors Without Borders medical charity in Syria.

Obama authorized an ultimately doomed raid by U.S. special operators to go into Syria and secure her release along with several other captives in early July 2014. When they arrived at the abandoned oil refinery, the Delta Force team discovered the hostages had already been moved.

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