An Anglican priest kidnapped in northwest Nigeria greater than a month in the past has been killed by his captors, church officers mentioned Saturday, underscoring a worsening wave of mass kidnappings that has gripped the area and drawn worldwide alarm.
The Church of Nigeria confirmed that the Rev. Venerable Edwin Achi, taken alongside his spouse and daughter throughout an assault on their Kaduna dwelling on Oct. 28, died in captivity after weeks of failed negotiations.
In a late-Friday assertion, Archbishop Henry Ndakuba mentioned the church “obtained with profound grief” information of the killing, calling Achi’s dying “a brutal finish” to an ordeal marked by shifting ransom calls for. Gunmen had initially requested for 600 million naira (about $416,000) earlier than decreasing the sum to 200 million, based on church officers. Achi’s spouse and daughter stay unaccounted for.
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Achi’s killing comes as northern Nigeria faces a pointy rise in armed banditry and mass abductions. On Nov. 17, gunmen seized 25 schoolgirls in Kebbi state. Days later, greater than 300 college students and employees have been taken from a Catholic faculty in Niger state, prompting faculty closures throughout a number of states.
President Bola Tinubu has declared the scenario a “nationwide emergency,” suspended international journey and ordered the recruitment of fifty,000 new law enforcement officials as authorities battle to comprise violence spreading throughout rural communities.
The surge in assaults has reverberated past Nigeria’s borders. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the Nigerian authorities’s response, calling the deteriorating safety scenario “a shame” and warning that Washington may freeze help or contemplate navy motion if Christian communities proceed to face focused violence.
Ndakuba urged federal authorities to crack down on what he described because the networks enabling armed teams, calling for safety companies to “establish and expose the sponsors and financiers of this wave of terror.” He additionally appealed for the swift launch of Achi’s spouse and daughter, who stay in captivity.
