Armed assailants abducted a priest and others while killing the brother of another church leader during a Monday attack in Nigeria’s troubled Kaduna state, according to a leading Catholic charity.
In a press statement, Aid to the Church in Need said it received an official communication from the Archdiocese of Kaduna stating that unidentified assailants attacked the residence of 39-year-old Father Bobbo Paschal, the parish priest of St. Stephen Parish, on Monday in the Kagarko Local Government Area. Paschal and many others were taken captive while the brother of Father Anthony Yero was killed.
“Church authorities are urgently calling on all people of goodwill to join in prayer for the safety and swift release of Fr. Bobbo Paschal and all those abducted, and for the peaceful repose of the deceased,” the statement reads. “ACN expresses deep concern over this latest act of violence targeting Christian communities and clergy in Nigeria and remains in close contact with the local Church as the situation develops.”
Archdiocese of Kaduna Chancellor, the Rev. Fr. Christian Okewu Emmanuel, confirmed the attack in a letter cited by the Peoples Gazette.
For several years, Nigeria has faced a security crisis amid the rise of extremist groups in the northeast and the murders of thousands by radicalized herdsmen in predominantly Christian farming villages in the country’s Middle Belt. On top of that, kidnapping for ransom has become rampant, and church leaders and schools are often targeted by criminal groups.
Rights groups warn that mass kidnappings by large groups occur regularly within Nigeria.
In northwestern Nigeria, bandits with “sophisticated weapons” attacked a girls’ boarding school in Kebbi state’s Danko-Wasagu area before dawn on Monday. At least 25 students are missing, and the vice principal was killed, local police told the media. No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators,” a police spokesperson told The Associated Press.
The persecution monitor Open Doors and its research arm World Watch Research warned in its 2024 Nigeria country dossier that thousands of Christians are abducted each year in Nigeria. During its 2025 reporting period, Open Doors tallied at least 2,830 Christians who were kidnapped nationwide.
“Christian leaders who spoke to [World Watch Research] described what they experienced as planned attempts to bankrupt Christian communities, particularly in the North and North-Central. They spoke of ‘intergenerational bankruptcy,’ where extended families found themselves forced to sell land and family assets to save abductees,” the dossier wrote.
One church leader is quoted in the dossier as saying: “We in Christian communities know that kidnapping actually achieves the aims of terror. It shuts down schools, whole schools and it is the end of Western education in the North. That is a Boko Haram aim. It bankrupts and impoverishes extended families, whole congregations, as Christians will come together to try to free a pastor. And it is resulting in the flight of Christian communities.”
Open Doors has consistently reported in the last few years that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria each year than in any other country in the world combined, including more than 3,100 during the group’s 2025 reporting period.
In late October, U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that he would instruct the U.S. State Department to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the government’s most severe classification for governments that engage in or tolerate violations of religious freedom. The designation can carry potential diplomatic burdens, such as sanctions.
Nigeria was designated a CPC for the first time by the first Trump administration in 2020. That designation was revoked during the first year of the Biden administration. Before his announcement late last month, the Trump administration faced pressure to label Nigeria a CPC from lawmakers and many Christian religious freedom advocates.
Among those at the forefront of urging Trump to take action on Nigeria is Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va. He recently introduced a resolution in Congress condemning Nigeria and supporting Trump’s call to designate Nigeria a CPC.
“For far too long, the world has turned a blind eye to the suffering of innocent Christians — entire villages destroyed, churches burned, pastors tortured, families torn apart,” the resolution states. “This grave suffering must end now.”
While some argue that the violence impacting Christians in Nigeria has reached the standard for genocide, especially in the Middle Belt states, the Nigerian government has maintained across different administrations that such violence is not inherently religious and emanates from decades-old farmer-herder clashes. While the government has pushed back on claims of a genocide happening in Nigeria, critics contend that the federal government has not done enough to thwart terrorism and protect its citizens.
