{"id":17012,"date":"2026-01-24T05:08:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17012"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:08:33","slug":"nigerian-government-must-do-more-to-protect-its-people-after-yet-another-mass-kidnapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=17012","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian government must do more to protect its people after yet another mass kidnapping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Abductees released in Kogi State on 13 January.<\/span>\u00a0(Photo: @Otunba)<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian religious liberty advocates have said that the Nigerian government must do more to end the constant attacks, kidnappings and killings by militants, Islamists and bandits.<\/p>\n

In the latest of many outrages,\u00a0163 Christians were abducted by \u201cheavily armed bandits\u201d during an attack on two churches on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s security services have often been criticised for their inability to prevent attacks, sometimes being entirely absent even when advance warning is given.<\/p>\n

In response to the ongoing crisis, the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, declared a national emergency and pledged to double the size of the police forces. The Nigerian government also gave permission for the US to conduct airstrikes on Christmas Day, targeting militant camps in the north of the country.<\/p>\n

Rev Yunusa Sabo Nmadu, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, said, \u201cWhile applauding the military successes recorded in the past few months, CSW condemns the repeated attacks on the vulnerable people in Kurmin Wali and surrounding communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the security agencies to ensure the prompt release of those abducted and to enhance security for all other vulnerable areas.<\/p>\n

“We also call on the government to strengthen the local capacity of these villagers to serve as the first line of defence against terrorists who are increasingly emboldened by each unchallenged abduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as an inability to prevent many attacks, Nigerian authorities have been criticised for minimising the religious dimension of the violence and for attempting to obfuscate the scale.<\/p>\n

President Tinubu has appeared to suggest that both Christians and Muslims have equally been victims. While this is true in cases which are little more than banditry, there are numerous cases of Islamic militants carrying out violent action against the Christian population.<\/p>\n

The founder president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mervyn Thomas, called for greater transparency and honesty from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cCSW is highly concerned by the official efforts to obscure the abductions that took place in Kurmin Wali and to prevent residents from speaking to the press,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Nigeria\u00a0at both state and federal levels\u00a0must be transparent about the scale and severity of the security crisis the country is experiencing, and specifically about the asymmetry with which Christian communities are being targeted,\u00a0in order to ensure\u00a0an\u00a0effective response to\u00a0the\u00a0terrorism\u00a0that has blighted the lives of\u00a0vulnerable citizens\u00a0across central Nigeria\u00a0for far too long.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abductees released in Kogi State on 13 January.\u00a0(Photo: @Otunba) Christian religious liberty advocates have said that the Nigerian government must do more to end the constant attacks, kidnappings and killings by militants, Islamists and bandits. In the latest of many outrages,\u00a0163 Christians were abducted by \u201cheavily armed bandits\u201d during an attack on two churches on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[210,5342,1795,2859,214,1031],"class_list":{"0":"post-17012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-kidnapping","10":"tag-mass","11":"tag-nigerian","12":"tag-people","13":"tag-protect"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}