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Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2025. 8:33 am CST.
By Zoila Palma: Christian communities in Nigeria continue to face rising persecution, with hundreds of churches attacked and clergy targeted by armed groups, Catholic News Agency reports.
The latest victim, Father Matthew Eya, was shot and killed on September 19 while returning to his parish in Enugu State.
Witnesses reported that armed men on motorcycles ambushed his vehicle, fatally shooting him at close range in what appeared to be a targeted assassination rather than a failed kidnapping. His death adds to a growing list of attacks against Catholic priests in Nigeria, particularly in the country’s volatile eastern regions.
According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), at least 15 priests were kidnapped between January and September this year, while the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) reports that since 2015, 145 priests have been abducted, 11 murdered, and four remain missing. Intersociety’s data suggests the real toll is far higher, with at least 250 Catholic clergy and another 350 from other denominations attacked.
The group attributes the violence to jihadist organizations such as Boko Haram and ISWAP, as well as criminal gangs involved in extortion and ransom kidnappings.
The ongoing violence has devastated Christian communities across Nigeria.
Since 2009, more than 19,000 churches have been destroyed or closed — an average of 1,200 per year — while nearly 15 million people have been displaced by religious and ethnic conflict.
Reports indicate that jihadist camps continue to hold hundreds of Christian hostages under brutal conditions, and children are being forcibly taken to Islamic orphanages in northern regions for conversion.
Human rights groups have also accused elements of the Nigerian military and police of complicity in kidnappings and extrajudicial killings, raising alarms over worsening instability and religious persecution in Africa’s most populous nation.
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