“We will use all legitimate means to ensure their speedy and safe release,” he said.
At least seven Catholic priests were kidnapped in Nigeria in July, according to data compiled by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic non-profit organization.
The latest abduction brings the total to 20 Nigerian priests kidnapped since the beginning of 2022. Three of the priests have been killed.
Security expert David Otto, director of the Geneva Center for Strategic and Security Studies in Africa, based in Geneva, Switzerland, told CNA that the consensus of security experts in his group is that the Catholic Church is targeted because she paid the high ransoms. demanded by bandits, which can amount to $200,000 or more.
Bishop Jude Arogundade of Ondo in southwestern Nigeria, where gunmen still not apprehended on June 4 killed at least 40 people attending a Pentecost mass in Owo, believes that the Catholic Church in Nigeria is both a threat and a strategic target for radicalized Muslim Fulani herders. and Islamic terrorist groups using violence to destabilize Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Kaduna state, in particular, has been described as “the epicenter of kidnappings and violence by non-state actors” in Nigeria by the British human rights foundation Christian Solidarity Worldwide. A 2022 report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom cites six attacks against churches in Kaduna State in 2021.
