Nigerian Catholic priests fear for their lives after string of kidnappings, attacks

Reverend John Gbakaan was kidnapped and held for ransom on January 15 near the village of Tufa in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. He had traveled that evening with his brother to visit their mother in Benue State in north-central Nigeria.

The pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church was reportedly ambushed by gunmen and detained for an initial ransom of 30 million Nigerian naira, or about $ 80,000. His captors quickly lowered the ransom to 5 million naira, or about $ 15,000, but Father Gbakaan was found dead the next day with machete wounds all over his body. No arrests were made in connection with the murder of the priest. The fate or state of his brother is also unclear. He has not been seen since he left on the trip.

On the same day Father Gbakaan was found, Reverend Michael Mbari, parish priest of southern Nigeria, was released by his captors. They had held him hostage for six days. On January 1, Bishop Moses Chikwe from Owerri, a town in south-eastern Nigeria, was released with his driver. They had been kidnapped a week earlier.

In November last year, Rev. Matthew Dajo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria about 160 kilometers from Father Gbakaan’s diocese, was also arrested by armed men and held hostage for 10 days. At least 20 priests in Nigeria have been kidnapped in the past five years.

In 2018, armed shepherds killed two priests and 17 parishioners during morning mass at St. Ignatius Quasi parish in a rural community in Benue State, sparking national outcry and drawing international attention to the violence. suffered by the Nigerian Catholic community. The attackers also destroyed farmland and razed houses in the impoverished farming community.

Thousands of Catholic worshipers and concerned citizens have taken to the streets of Nigeria to protest the continued violence and growing insecurity.

In the wake of the attacks, thousands of Catholic worshipers and concerned citizens have taken to the streets of Nigeria to protest the continued violence and growing insecurity. Some Catholic bishops joined the march and organized a prayer rally for the victims and for peace in the country.

“We joined this [protest] because we wanted to show how bad we felt about the killings and also to show our displeasure with the government’s inability to protect us, ”said Samson Otuko. America this month. “Even now, we still live in fear because shepherds still occupy our forests and farmlands. “

“Attacks on priests by bandits or armed men at first glance may simply be a manifestation of increasing criminality,” the Reverend said. Evariste Bassey, the former executive director of Caritas Nigeria. “Priests are considered to be part of the privileged group, and attacks can therefore occur as [an expression of] a form of anticlericalism.

“Some of us may not have helped matters with our level of ostentation,” said Father Bassey, who is a pastor in southern Nigeria and heads the Justice, Development and Peace Commission in Nigeria. Archdiocese of Calabar. “We drive great cars and seem pretty happy, so we stand out and become a target. But, he added, “Really, that’s a bad perception. A lot of us are quite poor and the only thing we own is a nice car. We cannot rule out other considerations either.

The attacks are not limited to the ordained clergy and those who train for the priesthood have also been targeted.

The attacks are not limited to the ordained clergy and those who train for the priesthood have also been targeted. In January 2020, four seminarians were attacked and kidnapped at the Good Shepherd Seminary in northern Nigeria. Michael Nnadi, an 18-year-old seminarian was killed while the other three were released a few weeks later.

Pope Francis called on the global Catholic community to pray for the insecurity in the country. “Today, I would like to pray in particular for the people of the northern region of Nigeria, victims of violence and terrorist attacks,” he said in his speech at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican following the prayer of the Angelus of August 8. 2020.

The increasing attacks on priests and their ministries have left many in fear. “The security situation is not only bad; this is extremely true, said Father Bassey. “You want to hurry home; you don’t want to be in a lonely place; you can’t go out and walk around.

“The truth is, I had to make drastic adjustments to my lifestyle and taking precautionary measures,” he said. “I have colleagues and parishioners who have been kidnapped and the stories I hear are not pleasant at all. I beg myself to get out of such circumstances because I don’t know how I would react. “

Pope Francis called on the global Catholic community to pray for the insecurity in the country.

He suggested that three factors were at play in contemporary Nigeria, contributing to the growing insecurity of priests: “increasing crime fueled by a get-rich-quick mindset; anticlericalism based on a loss of the sense of the sacred; and terrorist religious considerations.

In September 2019, hundreds of priests from the Diocese of Enugu, a town in southeastern Nigeria, demonstrated to protest against the frequent kidnappings and killings of priests. Their demonstration follows the assassination of Reverend Paul Offu, priest of the diocese, who was returning to his parish when he was ambushed by armed men suspected of being cattle breeders of the Fulani ethnic group.

In the wake of the killings and the public outrage that followed, the state government said it plans to recruit around 1,700 rangers to conduct regular patrols in the forests, where shepherds from Armed militias were known to go into hiding, in order to protect local farmers and vulnerable communities.

“The Nigerian state has become so weak that non-state militias have emerged – the Fulani seen as an invading force and others seen as a defense force,” Father Bassey said. “This leaves those of us from minority groups quite vulnerable because we cannot defend ourselves, and the government is either incapable or deliberately cannot defend us. The militias know the weakness of the state and therefore attack at will, knowing that there is no real force of restraint.

The Nigerian government has not been able to provide adequate security to its people and insecurity is increasing. “The government may be doing everything in its power,” he said, “but the perception among citizens is that the government is in fact [aiding] terrorists by misguided policies.

The Nigerian government has not been able to provide adequate security to its people and insecurity is increasing.

“You give special treatment to terrorists, more terrorists are multiplying,” said Father Bassey. helped the situation by doing little to dislodge the perception that it is about promoting an ethnic group’s agenda.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who belongs to the Fulani ethnic group, has been accused of protecting his relatives and of failing to do more to condemn their crimes. In a situation where the attackers appear to be protected by the authorities and escape arrest, said Father Bassey, among the population there is “resentment which has gradually built up”.

In December 2015, Mr. Buhari claimed that the Nigerian government had “technically defeated” Boko Haram, the militant Islamic terrorist group, thus fulfilling its promise to win the elections in March of the same year.

However, it would appear that this did not happen. While the military has recaptured significant territories occupied by terrorists, Boko Haram continues to carry out regular attacks in the northeast, targeting both Muslim and Christian communities.

On Christmas Eve last year, Boko Haram insurgents stormed Pemi, a Christian town in the northeast, killing seven people and kidnapping a priest. In the early years of its violent campaign to impose Islamic law on the country, the terrorist group gained worldwide notoriety for carrying out targeted attacks on Christian communities, bombing churches, kidnapping and killing priests and consecrated women and men. .

Since the insurgency began in 2009, more than 30,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million people have been displaced from their homes. A report from the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust in London found that in 2019 “over 1,000 Christians were killed … in addition to the estimated 6,000+. [Christian] deaths since 2015. “

In a scathing homily on Christmas Day last year, Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto lamented “the endless bloodshed,

In a scathing homily on Christmas Day last year, Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto lamented “the endless bloodshed, the collapse of the economy, social anomie, domestic and community violence, the kidnappings, armed robberies ”that plague Nigeria. The bishop notably criticized the Muslim president of the country, accusing him of “nepotism”.

“Ours has become a nation shrouded in desolation,” he said. “Ours has become a house of horror, fear stalking our homes, our highways, our towns, our hamlets and entire communities. “

The Muslim Solidarity Forum, a group of Islamic organizations, condemned Bishop Kukah for attributing terrorism and the increasing attacks by bandits and herders to Islam and for what they understood as the call from the bishop to a military coup against growing insecurity, maladministration and nepotism.

The possibility that militant Islamic movements are behind the regular attacks and killings of priests in the country cannot be ruled out. According to Father Bassey, some shepherds seem to work in collaboration with Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa “and consider it a religious duty to kidnap and torture priests or even to kill them”.

Ugochukwu Ugwoke, I.Sch., Parish priest from southwestern Nigeria, confirmed Father Bassey’s intuition. “Of course,” he said, “the cattle ranchers are so involved in the acts.”

“I will not be surprised if more priests become the target of attacks,” said Father Bassey, suggesting that angry members of more militant Islamic groups could carry out further violent attacks against Christians, “in order to avenge their honor, “he said,” which they seem to think has been laughed at.