The phenomenon, according to the report, is due to a combination of attacks by jihadist groups and organized criminal gangs operating for profit. Priests have been victims of both violent ambushes and financial extortion.
“Many were kidnapped for ransoms reaching tens of millions of nairas [Nigreian currency] or thousands of dollars. In other cases, the attackers sought to seize luxury vehicles belonging to the clerics to sell them to criminal networks,” Intersociety details in the report.
One of the most recent cases is that of Father Wilfred Ezemba, parish priest at St. Paul’s in Agaliga-Efabo (Kogi state) who was kidnapped on Sept. 12 along with other travelers by suspected jihadists and released on Sept. 16.
3 churches devastated every day in Nigeria
Furthermore, the report estimates that from the Boko Haram uprising in July 2009 to September of this year, 19,100 Christian churches in Nigeria have been destroyed, looted, or violently closed, representing an average of 1,200 churches per year, 100 per month, or more than three per day.
The violence has affected both Catholic churches and the so-called “white-garment churches” belonging to the Organization of African Instituted Churches as well as other Christian denominations.
Mass exodus: Nearly 15 million people displaced
The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has also led to a mass exodus: At least 15 million people have been displaced, forced to abandon their villages, ancestral homes, and churches to flee the massacres.
Intersociety also highlights in the report that personnel from special units of the Nigerian army and police, along with their commanders, are allegedly involved in kidnappings, murders, and forced disappearances of pastors of various Christian denominations. According to the nongovernmental organization, they claim they are conducting counterinsurgency operations in the southeast part of the country against individuals or groups promoting the secession of the Nigerian region of Biafra, which attempted to become independent from Nigeria in 1967 and was defeated after a bloody war that lasted till 1970.
These operations began in October 2020 in Obigbo (Rivers state) and in January 2021 in Orlu (Imo state). The worst affected regions include Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Kaduna, Benue, Plateau, Enugu, Imo, Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Yobe, and Southern Kaduna, where jihadist groups — such as Boko Haram, ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province), and Fulani herdsmen and bandits — have combined religious terrorism with criminal motives.
