Ten priests have been abducted in Nigeria this year, with one recently released from captivity.
Now commonplace in the country, they are often kidnapped with the goal of receiving a ransom or to further religious fanaticism. This places Nigeria as 6th on the 2024 World Watch List for religious persecution.
According to the Civil Society Joint Action group more than 17,000 Nigerians, most of them Christians, have been abducted since 2019.
This violence is not a new problem. Last year, Pope Francis dedicated part of one of his General Audiences to Fr Isaac who had been killed. He asked everyone to pray for him and all the Christians being persecuted.
Fr Isaac was just one of the Christians in the northern and central parts of the country who faced armed bandits and radical Islamic groups.
The organisation, Open Doors, reports that more Christians are killed for their faith every year in Nigeria than everywhere else in the world combined.
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