Unidentified gunmen kidnapped German national and activist Hella Mewis in the al-Karadah neighborhood in central Baghdad.
Mewis, who has been living in Iraq since 2015, runs an arts program at the Iraqi art collective Tarkib which organizes art and cultural events and offers German language and music courses.
She was known for riding a bicycle around the neighborhood and sitting at popular cafes.
Unofficial security sources said that the kidnapping took place near a police station at the Abu Nawas gardens, where Mewis was staying.
Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanmi had directed security forces to intensify their efforts to find her, ministry spokesman Saad Maan told the dpa news agency.
A security source quoted by AFP on the condition of anonymity said Mewis was "riding her bicycle when two cars, one of them a white pick-up truck used by some security forces, were seen kidnapping her".
Police officers at the local station witnessed the kidnapping but did not intervene, the source added.
Ali al-Bayati, a member of the semi-official Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, considered the abduction a dangerous sign that the Iraqi government and security forces were unable to protect foreigners in Iraq.
“Certainly, without real and serious procedures for investigation, accountability and punishment, this situation will be repeated, and this will lead to the withdrawal of all these missions from Baghdad to Erbil in the Kurdistan region or outside Iraq,” al-Bayati told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Al-Bayati demanded that security forces intervene swiftly to uncover Mewis’ fate and have her released.
A coalition of human rights and civil groups held on Tuesday a presser during which they condemned the kidnapping and called on authorities to put an end to gangs that have been, for years, working against activists.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, during a visit to Athens on Tuesday, said the German Foreign Ministry had established a crisis task force to deal with Mewis' disappearance, dpa reported.
Maas said he did not want to talk about the case in detail considering the sensitivity of the situation but said: “We have started at the foreign office to take care of the case and look for a solution that secures the concerned person’s well-being.”
