Nigeria: Parish priest kidnapped by Islamist gunmen in Enugu state
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Suspected Fulani Islamic jihadist gunmen forced their way into a Catholic Church in Nigeria’s Enugu state on Saturday and kidnapped the parish priest, Vanguard reports. More than 2,300 Christians in Nigeria were kidnapped by jihadists in the first ten months of this year alone, according to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
Rev. Fr. Victor Ishiwu, Parish Priest of St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Eburummiri, Ibagwa-Aka, Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State, was officiating prayers in the church’s adoration ground in the early hours of Saturday morning when gunmen speaking pidgin English and Fulani arrived and began firing sporadically into the air.
The actions of the gunmen caused the congregants, including Fr. Ishiwu, to flee in different directions, Vanguard said. Fr. Ishiwu managed to escape to the Parish House, but the terrorists followed him and demanded that he come out to them or they would burn the building down. When Fr. Ishiwu refused to surrender to the gunmen, the militants forced their way in and abducted him. As of November 21, Fr. Ishiwu’s whereabouts were not known.
Nigeria ranks 7th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2022 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. “Persecution in Nigeria is brutally violent,” Open Doors explains in a website statement.
Over 4,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by jihadists this year, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law said in a report earlier this month.