Kidnapped Priests and Christian Civilians Still Held by Islamists in Nigeria

Currently, more Christians are being systematically murdered in Nigeria than in all other countries of concern combined.

In 2025, over 7,000 Nigerian Christians were murdered by Islamic militants, including Boko Haram, also known as JAS, Islamic State – West African Province (ISWAP), JNIM, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, and Fulani and Koyam militias. Countless others have been abducted and held for ransom or never returned.

The problem has been described by prominent voices as “Islamization” and “Fulanization.” Violence in 2026 is already outpacing previous years, and with Nigerian general elections approaching, political tensions are high.

Federal and state intervention remains limited, and attacks continue on an almost daily basis across the North, East, and Middle Belt regions. Over Passion Week, violence struck Christian communities throughout the Middle Belt, specifically in Kaduna and Jos.

Open Doors documented 2,830 Christians kidnapped in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025 alone, Intersociety recorded 7,800 Christians kidnapped, approximately 35 per day.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa reported that over four years the Fulani Ethnic Militia alone carried out over 21,000 abductions in the North-Central Zone and Southern Kaduna, with return rates not publicly tracked. Of those taken, 91 Chibok girls remain unaccounted for, along with an unknown number from subsequent school kidnappings whose release was never confirmed.

Four kidnapped Catholic priests remain in captivity as of early 2026. Fr. John Bako Shekwolo has been missing since 2019, kidnapped from the Archdiocese of Kaduna.

Fr. Joseph Igweagu was taken in 2022 and has not been heard from since. Fr. Emmanuel Ezema remains in captivity with no confirmed release or proof of life. Fr. Nathaniel Asuwaye, parish priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in Karku, Kaduna State, was kidnapped on February 7, 2026, when gunmen raided his parish and residence, and his status remains unconfirmed.

Between 2015 and 2025, at least 145 Catholic priests were kidnapped and 11 killed in Nigeria. Kaduna was the deadliest state, with 24 priests abducted and seven killed. In the Diocese of Minna alone, more than 90 churches have closed due to chronic insecurity.

Priests are targeted because they are easily identified, generally unprotected, and their communities make extraordinary efforts to raise ransom.

A communications director for one Nigerian diocese told Catholic News Agency: “It’s easier to kidnap priests, and give him little torture, and money will come out of it,” adding that no priest comes out of captivity without ransom being paid.

A diocese in Edo State reported that in the past decade, six of its priests had been kidnapped and tortured before release. Fr. Alphonsus Afina, kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2025, was confirmed alive through unofficial channels.

His diocese in Alaska reported he was recovering from wounds on his legs from being bound tightly when captured and had been allowed to speak by phone to confirm he was alive.

Not all captives survive. Gunmen abducted four seminarians from Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna and released three, but killed 18-year-old Michael Nnadi after he refused to renounce his Christian faith.

A man claiming responsibility later gave an interview stating he executed Nnadi because he would not stop proclaiming his faith in captivity.

Lay captives face the same conditions. One survivor of a church kidnapping in Kaduna stated: “After the terrorists took us from the church, we trekked for a long distance without food and water and those who couldn’t walk fast were flogged and brutalised by the terrorists. I have bad injuries on my head.”

Boys are raped and forced to become fighters. The UN documented 210 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Nigeria in 2020 alone, including rape affecting 30 boys, with male victims recounted being held in a designated location where their role was to serve Boko Haram members sexually.

Amnesty International documented that boys are regularly conscripted, trained on weapons, and forced into combat operations against their own families and communities. Christian girls are given the choice of converting to Islam and marrying a jihadist fighter or slavery and repeated rape.

Human Rights Watch documented that Christian women and girls were singled out for abduction while Muslims were released, with unmarried Christian women held captive longer.

Some were subjected to forced conversion and marriage to Muslim men, or were murdered. Amnesty International documented one survivor who was raped repeatedly, sometimes by groups of up to six fighters.

The abduction of children follows the same pattern. On the night of April 14–15, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.

As of a September 2025 UN CEDAW inquiry, 91 Chibok girls remain in captivity or their fate is unknown, with many confirmed to have been forced to marry fighters and give birth in captivity.

In 2018, Boko Haram abducted 110 girls from a school in Dapchi, Yobe State. All were eventually released except Leah Sharibu, the only Christian among them, held back after refusing to convert to Islam.

Eight years later, Sharibu remains in captivity, her condition described as harsh and degrading. ISWAP threatened to kill her or keep her as a slave for life.

Reports indicate she has been forcibly married to an ISWAP commander and gave birth to a second child in 2020 and a third in 2023. UNICEF reported that since 2013, more than 1,000 children had been abducted by Boko Haram alone in northeastern Nigeria.

Between April 2014 and December 2022, approximately 70 attacks on schools occurred, with more than 1,680 students abducted, over 180 children killed, 90 injured, and more than 90 still missing.

Between January 2023 and November 2025, Nigeria recorded 22 more verified attacks on educational institutions, with 816 additional students kidnapped, bringing the total since Chibok to approximately 2,496 students abducted across 92 school attacks.

On November 21, 2025, armed bandits stormed St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, abducting 303 children and 12 teachers, some as young as 10. All were released by December 22, 2025, though whether ransom was paid was not publicly confirmed.

According to SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis has generated 2.56 billion naira, approximately $1.66 million, in confirmed ransom payments, with 4,722 civilians abducted in a single year. UNICEF reports that one in three Nigerian children is not in school, a figure the abduction crisis has worsened.

The post Kidnapped Priests and Christian Civilians Still Held by Islamists in Nigeria appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.