Armed men abducted 163 Christian worshippers after raiding two churches during Sunday services in Kaduna State, according to a senior clergy member. The assault in Kurmin Wali village became the latest mass kidnapping in northern and central Nigeria, where criminal gangs regularly seize people for ransom.
Reverend Joseph Hayab, who leads the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, said the attackers arrived in large numbers, blocked church entrances and forced worshippers into the bush. He put the initial number taken at 172 and said nine escaped, leaving 163 in captivity.
A security report prepared for the United Nations separately said armed bandits attacked multiple churches in the Kurmin Wali area and took more than 100 people. The UN-linked account supports the report of a large abduction but does not independently confirm Hayab’s precise total. Kaduna police did not answer requests for comment.
Kurmin Wali is in Kajuru district, a predominantly Christian area and a frequent target of raids. Criminal groups commonly called bandits have terrorized communities across northwest and central Nigeria, looting property, burning homes and kidnapping residents. Their victims include Christians and Muslims.
The religious setting heightened political attention, but Nigeria’s overlapping conflicts do not divide neatly along faith lines. The country has a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north. Experts cited in the supplied report said violence often kills people from both communities without distinction.
Kajuru has also experienced clashes involving Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herders. Those disputes are connected to competition over land and shrinking resources, even when ethnic and religious identities shape how the violence is perceived. The evidence did not identify the church attackers as participants in those particular clashes.
The abduction followed other large school and community raids. In November, gunmen seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger State. They were released weeks later in two groups. No release terms were supplied.
Kidnapping has developed into a structured profit-making industry, according to Lagos consultancy SBM Intelligence. Its report estimated that the business generated about $1.66 million from July 2024 through June 2025. That broader pattern supports a likely ransom motive for many abductions, though the attackers in Kurmin Wali had not publicly stated demands in the evidence packet.
The United States increased pressure on Nigeria over attacks on Christians, and in December U.S. forces struck targets in Sokoto State that Washington and Abuja described as linked to Islamic State. Those operations occurred in another region and were not connected in the supplied report to the Kaduna kidnappers.
The immediate priority in Kurmin Wali remained locating the captives and establishing an official count. With no police statement, the clergy and UN security reports provide the available picture: two churches stormed, more than 100 people taken and a local church leader saying 163 remained missing.
