Nigeria: Catholic priest burned to death, another seriously injured
Father Isaac Achi was killed and his colleague, Father Colins Omeh, shot at but alive in an attack on their rectory. Elsewhere in Nigeria, five worshippers getting ready for Sunday Mass were abducted.
Another Catholic priest was murdered in Nigeria at the beginning of the year 2023. In the early hours of January 15, Father Isaac Achi, pastor of St. Peter and Paul Parish in Kafin Koro, in the western state of Niger, was burned to death by armed men who set fire to the rectory after having failed to enter.
"The rectory was completely burned and the parish priest, the Reverend Father Isaac Achi, was killed while the assistant parish priest Father Colins Omeh was shot but is receiving medical attention," the Diocese of Minna said in a statement on Sunday. The Diocese of Minna is asking for "prayers for God's mercy” for Father Omeh.
Father Achi was the dean of the Kafin koro deanery in that diocese and president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State.
Abducted in 2013
"This is a sad moment," said Alhaji Sani Bello Abubakar, the governor of Niger State. “For a priest to be killed in this way means that we are not all safe. These terrorists have lost their minds, and drastic action is needed to stop this ongoing carnage."
Father Achi, on several occasions during his priestly ministry in Niger State, Nigeria's largest federated state, has had to deal with the growing insecurity of terrorist attacks in the West African country. In 2011, while he was serving at St. Theresa's parish in Madalla, a satellite town of the capital Abuja, 43 people were killed when a bomb exploded on December 25 as worshippers were leaving the church. The attack was claimed by Boko Haram terrorists.
Then, two years later, in February 2013, the priest was kidnapped by bandits and released by security forces not far from Abuja, according to the local press.
Five laypeople kidnapped
On January 15, in another attack a few hours later, "bandits" entered a house in Dan Tsauni village in the northwestern Kankara district of Katsina State, and abducted five worshippers who were preparing to attend Sunday mass in a nearby church.
"The terrorists seized five people in the house, shot a priest in the hand and fled with the five hostages," state police spokesman Gambo Isa told AFP.
Since 2015, kidnappings of priests, religious and faithful have increased in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. In 2015, according to the U.S. Pew Research Center, the country was 50% Muslim versus 48.1% Christian. The church, which has repeatedly denounced the insecurity, had twice in 2018 called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari.
At least 18 priests were abducted in Nigeria during the first six months of last year, including five in the first week of July alone, according to data compiled in mid-July 2022 by Aid to the Church in Need.