Armed gangs kidnapped 163 Christian worshippers after storming two churches in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State on Sunday, a member of the clergy told AFP.
Gangs — known in Nigeria as “bandits” — frequently carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and loot villages in mainly the northern and central parts of Africa’s most populous country.
Sunday’s attacks are the latest in a wave of kidnappings targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
“The attackers came in numbers and blocked the entrance of the churches and forced the worshippers out into the bush,” Reverend Joseph Hayab, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria for the country’s north, said on Monday.
“The actual number they took was 172 but nine escaped, so 163 are with them,” added Hayab.
A UN security report seen by AFP on Monday also noted more than 100 were abducted, suggesting more attacks could occur in the remote parts of the state.
Gunmen raided the two churches during Sunday mass in Kurmin Wali village in the predominantly Christian Kajuru district.
Kaduna state police did not respond to AFP requests for comment.
Roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, Nigeria is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.
In November, armed gangs seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger state. They were released weeks later in two batches.
US President Donald Trump has latched onto the insecurity in Nigeria, focusing on the killing of Christians and putting Abuja under diplomatic pressure.
In late December the United States launched strikes on what it and the Nigerian government said were militants linked to the Islamic State group in the northwestern Sokoto state.
– More attacks ‘likely’ –
Kaduna is one of several states in northwest and central Nigeria that have for years been terrorised by criminal gangs who raid villages, abduct residents and burn homes after looting them.
Kajuru district is a hotspot for bandit attacks in Kaduna State, which has witnessed clashes between Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herders.
The violence centres around competition for land and dwindling resources, although on the surface it falls along ethnic and religious lines.
A security report prepared for the United Nations said “armed bandits” attacked multiple churches in the Kurmin Wali area on Sunday, abducting “over 100 worshippers”.
The reports suggested that “similar assaults are likely to persist in remote parts of western Kaduna”.
Nigeria’s kidnappings are predominantly for ransom and the crisis has “consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry” that raised some $1.66 million between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.
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