Three worshippers were killed and more than 30 kidnapped on Sunday in an armed attack on two churches in Kaduna state, central Nigeria, during mass, reports the Spanish news agency EFE.
Three worshippers were killed and more than 30 kidnapped last Sunday in attacks by armed men on two churches in Kaduna state, central Nigeria, local religious authorities confirmed to EFE on Tuesday.
“The bandits attacked two churches: one ECWA [Evangelical Church Winning All] and the other Catholic during Sunday services and killed three worshippers,” the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna, Reverend John Hayab, told EFE.
In addition to killing three people, including a pastor of the evangelical church, “they also abducted more than 30 worshippers, and so far, none of the abductees has returned,” Hayab said, adding that the attackers used motorcycles and fired sporadically during the attacks.
After the attacks on the temples, located in the town of Kajuru in southern Kaduna, the criminals contacted some of the kidnapped people's relatives to demand a ransom of 160 million naira (more than 87,000 euros), said the CAN president.
“It's time for the government to act. We can't go on like this. The army must step up its efforts to eradicate banditry in Kaduna,” he said, lamenting the ‘constant attacks’ that lead the faithful to ‘pray in fear’.
Some states in Nigeria - especially in the central and northwestern regions of the country - are being repeatedly attacked by 'bandits', the term used in the country to describe criminal groups that commit mass robberies and kidnappings for huge ransoms and whose members are sometimes labeled “terrorists” by the authorities.
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