A village head kidnapped along with seven other Christians in central Nigeria was reportedly found dead on Monday.
Yuda Garba, head of the predominantly Christian Dnako village in Bwari Area Council of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had been kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen on March 11. Villagers reportedly found his corpse in the nearby Nomadic Forest near Kuyeri, in Kagarko Local Government Area close to Kaduna state’s border with the FCT.
Relatives have identified the remains found at the site, according to a post on X by Zagazola Makama on Monday, and authorities said security personnel intensified efforts to locate other victims.
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Abducted with Garba in the early hours of March 11 were his grandchildren, Ephraim and Philemon, another Christian identified only as Nicholas, and four other Christians, area residents said.
A band of armed herdsmen stormed the village at about midnight, breaking into homes as villagers were sleeping and taking them away at gunpoint, said village resident Tanko Baba.
“One of the Christians kidnapped is my cousin Nicholas,” Baba told Christian Daily International–Morning Star News. “And the sad thing is that the bandits who we believe are Fulani herdsmen kidnapped the victims as they were sleeping in their houses.”
Josephine Adeh, spokesperson for the Abuja Federal Capital Territory Police Command, confirmed the incident.
“Police personnel have been deployed to the area, and they’re on the trail of the bandits,” Baba told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Hopefully, the victims will be rescued.”
On Jan. 26 in Bwari Area Council’s predominantly Christian community of Chikakore, Kubwa, four other people were kidnapped by suspected herdsmen shortly after 11 p.m., area resident John Mark said.
“The four victims are members of the family of Adesiyan Akinropo, a notable Christian in the community,” Mark told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Bishop’s brother kidnapped
In Kaduna state’s Anchuna village, Zangon Kataf County, the brother of the Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic bishop of Sokoto Diocese, was kidnapped on March 5, sources said.
Ishaya Kukah was abducted along with six other Christians at about 11 p.m. by “Fulani bandits,” said another brother, Samuel Kukah.
“Among those kidnapped is our younger brother, Ishaya Kukah, and six other women and children,” Samuel Kukah told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “They were taken away forcefully at gunpoint. The incident happened at about 11 p.m. while we were sleeping in our houses.”
Mansir Hassan, spokesperson for Kaduna State Police Command, confirmed the incident.
“We’re aware about the incident you’re asking about,” Hassan told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “The police commissioner has been briefed about it, and efforts are ongoing to rescue the victims.”
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Nigeria remained among the most dangerous places on Earth for Christians, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the reporting period, 3,100 (69%) were in Nigeria, according to the WWL.
“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.
In the country’s Northcentral zone, where Christians are more common than they are in the Northeast and Northwest, Islamic extremist Fulani militia attack farming communities, killing many hundreds, Christians above all, according to the report.
Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, are also active in the country’s northern states, where federal government control is scant and Christians and their communities continue to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, according to the report. Abductions for ransom have increased considerably in recent years.
The violence has spread to southern states, and a new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged in the northwest, armed with advanced weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL noted. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.
Nigeria is ranked No. 7 on the WWL of the 50-worst countries for Christian persecution.
This article was originally published at Christian Daily International–Morning Star News
