An Anglican priest abducted in northwest Nigeria more than a month ago has been killed by his captors, church officials said Saturday, underscoring a worsening wave of mass kidnappings that has gripped the region and drawn international alarm.
The Church of Nigeria confirmed that the Rev. Venerable Edwin Achi, taken alongside his wife and daughter during an attack on their Kaduna home on Oct. 28, died in captivity after weeks of failed negotiations.
In a late-Friday statement, Archbishop Henry Ndakuba said the church “received with profound grief” news of the killing, calling Achi’s death “a brutal end” to an ordeal marked by shifting ransom demands. Gunmen had initially asked for 600 million naira (about $416,000) before lowering the sum to 200 million, according to church officials. Achi’s wife and daughter remain unaccounted for.
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Achi’s killing comes as northern Nigeria faces a sharp rise in armed banditry and mass abductions. On Nov. 17, gunmen seized 25 schoolgirls in Kebbi state. Days later, more than 300 students and staff were taken from a Catholic school in Niger state, prompting school closures across several states.
President Bola Tinubu has declared the situation a “national emergency,” suspended foreign travel and ordered the recruitment of 50,000 new police officers as authorities struggle to contain violence spreading across rural communities.
The surge in attacks has reverberated beyond Nigeria’s borders. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Nigerian government’s response, calling the deteriorating security situation “a disgrace” and warning that Washington could freeze aid or consider military action if Christian communities continue to face targeted violence.
Ndakuba urged federal authorities to crack down on what he described as the networks enabling armed groups, calling for security agencies to “identify and expose the sponsors and financiers of this wave of terror.” He also appealed for the swift release of Achi’s wife and daughter, who remain in captivity.
