Kidnapping Crisis Targets Christian Communities in Nigeria

The escalating wave of kidnappings in north-central Nigeria has emerged as a systematic strategy to destroy Christian communities, according to multiple experts and religious freedom watchdogs. Fulani militants, predominantly Muslim, are deliberately targeting Christians with mass abductions as part of what some observers describe as a coordinated campaign with devastating economic consequences.

“Kidnapping for ransom is a strategic aim of the Fulani militants,” explained Steven Kerfas, lead researcher for the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA). “They do it to fund their terrorism, but also to bankrupt the Christian community.”

In Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, these abductions follow a troubling pattern. Kerfas described cases where “100 Christians will be marched into the forest and kept there for months,” forcing families and communities to make impossible choices. Victims’ families often must sell everything they own—including essential farmland—to pay the demanded ransoms.

This strategy creates a devastating cycle. “They survive through this subsistence agriculture. Now you force them to sell the farmland that they are surviving on to pay ransom. So by the time you release them, what do they go back to? Nothing,” Kerfas added.

Data from Open Doors UK, a global Christian charity, paints a stark picture of the scale and disproportionate targeting. Between 2020 and 2025, the organization documented 4,407 Christians abducted in Nigeria’s north-central region. When adjusted for population size, Christians were 2.4 times more likely than Muslims to be kidnapped.

“The kidnapping for ransom epidemic in north-central Nigeria doesn’t just affect Christians, but it’s clear that they are disproportionately singled out,” said Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK. She noted that kidnappers specifically target churches and schools, with clergy members representing high-value targets due to their community standing.

The financial impact extends beyond immediate families. In April of this year, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) reportedly paid 300 million naira (approximately $205,000) in ransom for about 50 members kidnapped in Kaduna and Plateau states. Such enormous payments drain church resources and devastate entire faith communities.

The crisis presents victims with what Blyth calls a “horrific dilemma”—pay ransoms hoping to save lives while knowing payments fund further attacks, or refuse and risk their loved ones being killed. Tragically, even payment doesn’t guarantee survival. The International Christian Concern reported that Reverend James Audu Issa, kidnapped in August 2024, was killed despite his family paying the ransom.

Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa (a pseudonym used to protect his identity) emphasized the targeted nature of the kidnappings: “In the Middle Belt, they kidnap Christians, they kidnap the clergy, they abduct women. They hardly kidnap any Muslims.” He added, “The reason for these ransom demands is to economically weaken Christians. That is the way Christians look at it.”

The targeting occurs in regions where Christians form the majority population. Kerfas believes the Fulani militants are waging what he describes as a “jihad” that requires funding, placing an unbearable burden on Christian communities. “If you don’t pay ransom, you get killed. And sometimes, even after paying the ransom, you still get killed,” he warned.

This kidnapping crisis is unfolding against a backdrop of broader religious violence in Nigeria. In July 2025, 27 Christians were reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in the village of Bindi Ta-hoss, highlighting the multifaceted nature of the threats facing Christian communities.

As ransoms continue to impoverish Christian families and communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, experts warn that without intervention, the future for these communities grows increasingly desperate and uncertain.