Nigeria: Worshippers kidnapped during church service

 BBC News reported that on December 14th at least 13 people were kidnapped from a church in Nigeria’s central Kogi state.

The attackers stormed into Evangelical Church Winning All in the rural farming district Aaaaz-Kiri during morning service. Officials have described the gunmen as “bandits,” a term that is used locally for criminal gangs who typically kidnap people for random.

Five of the gunmen who stormed the church were killed. Commissioner Kingley Fanwo said others managed to escape despite being wounded.

Nigeria have seen many similar cases over the past few weeks, with school kidnappings and gunmen holding children hostage for ransom being common.

Recently, 100 Nigerian school students were returned home after being abducted, and despite the happiness and relief parents had, the efforts of the rescue and information on how this was possible have not been clear.

The Nigerian authorities often do not speak much about rescue operations or arrests, and analysts believe the secrecy stems from the frequent payment of ransoms. However, despite these opinions, officials have not said otherwise.

There was also another recent attack on a church two weeks prior to this most recent case in which gunmen raided the nearby town of Ejiba, kidnapping a pastor, his wife, and other church members.

Still, all civilians kidnapped in the incident are being held, and their whereabouts are currently unknown, despite the efforts by security agencies to secure their release.

All these latest incidents, including mass abductions of school children, churches, and villages, are a clear indication of a serious insecurity problem that Nigeria is facing at the moment, and without proper preventative measures in place, it becomes highly dangerous for civilians, with many people already losing their lives in certain attacks.

The biggest incident that Nigeria has seen is when 300 children and 12 members of staff were kidnapped from St. Mary’s catholic school in Papiri, Niger state.

Again, like many kidnappings that have happened in Nigeria, parents were concerned for the lack of updates from authorities, and the only support that they had was one another to lean on.

This led parents to meet at a school compound in Papiri towards the end of November to support each other during the difficult times of their children’s absence.

The Nigerian government has claimed that Jihadist groups Boko haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) were to blame in most cases.

Although analysts argue this statement and have said to the BBC that most of these crimes were committed by criminal gangs and not the terrorist groups, the government claims to hold accountable.

BBC News, Maghrebi.org