Unidentified terrorists have killed two Catholic priests in Nigeria’s Kaduna and Edo states, according to statements from their respective archdioceses which come a month after two other priests were killed in two other districts of the West African country. the West.
The victims have been identified as Fr. Vitus Borogo, a priest serving in the Archdiocese of Kaduna, and Fr. Christopher Odia of the Diocese of Auchi.
Borogo was killed in a raid on a farm along the Kaduna-Kachia road on Saturday, and Odia was abducted from his rectory at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in the Ikabigbo area of Ikabigbo state. Edo, then killed by his captors on Sunday evening, Catholic News Agency reportedquoting a statement from the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kaduna.
Borogo, 50, was a chaplain at Kaduna State Polytechnic, and Odia, 42, was a trustee of St. Michael’s and principal of St. Philip Catholic Secondary School in the Jattu area.
Catholic News Agency also noted that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country in the world – at least 4,650 in 2021 and nearly 900 in the first three months of 2022 alone.
In May, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and two unidentified boys. identified from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of Kafur Local Government Area in Katsina State, Vatican News reported at the time.
In another incident the same month, radical Islamic militants affiliated with the Islamic Fulani Herdsmen or the Islamic State West Africa Province killed at least eight Christians, including children under the age of 5. years, and injured several others in an attack in Borno State.
Also last month, the Islamic State terror group released a video showing the execution of some 20 Christian civilians in Borno state in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by US special forces in February.
The video, published by a media outlet linked to IS, showed a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while claiming it was revenge for the murder of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, a Iraqi Islamist terrorist and the second “caliph”. of the Islamic State.
Open Doors USA, which monitors the persecution in over 60 countries, earlier reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. This is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Moreover, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, compared to 990 a year earlier.
