Mass Kidnappings Overwhelm Security as Clergy, Women, Children Suffer for Months
By Luka Binniyat
Despite the recent return of 165 hostages from Fulani terrorist camps on Feb. 5, at least 212 Christians languish in forested hostage camps in southern Kaduna after months of kidnapping raids, TruthNigeria has learned.
The numbers are based on interviews with community leaders in five Local Governance Areas (Counties), raising troubling questions about prolonged government silence from police and Nigerian media. Previous TruthNigeria reports raise the prospect that as many as 1,400 victims are waiting to be ransomed out. At least 176 hostages are under the control of Boko Haram (Western learning forbidden) insurgents, according to a Feb. 14 propaganda video traced to Wuro in Kwara According to security experts at a roundtable of TVC News, as many as 7,000 persons across seven states are being held hostage.
But it’s clear that the epicenter of industrial scale kidnapping for ransom of Christian victims is in Chikun and Kachia Local Government Areas of Southern Kaduna. The southern region of the state spans roughly 10,000 square miles and holds 5 million Christians, lying between Nigeria’s Muslim North and largely Christian Middle Belt of Nigeria. It has endured sustained Islamist terrorist violence since 2012, adding to what is now recognized as genocide.
Pack journalists and conflict specialists loyal to the Nigerian government insist that Christians do not face persecution – including kidnapping for ransom – more so than Muslim citizens. The First Lady of Nigeria, Oluremi Tinuba, visited Washington in February to assure journalists that kidnappers are motivated by money more so than sectarian hatred. Yet, the hundreds of kidnapping victims interviewed by TruthNigeria say the opposite: they say the camps they survive have chiefly Christian hostages. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and President Donald Trump have gone on record to say that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria.
The conditions in the camps are known to the National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu, who himself paraded 59 rescued hostages at a celebration in his Abuja office on Feb. 5, 2025. Yet, no Nigerian government spokesmen have responded to information requests from TruthNigeria journalists since Feb 12, 2025, when the Rijana camp system was first reported by TruthNigeria.
Based on the photographs and survivor testimonies published by TruthNigeria and Christian Broadcasting Network, Dede Laugesen, president of Save the Persecuted Christians dubbed the camp in Rijana, Chikun LGA, an “open air Auschwitz.”
Yet, before and after the Kurmin Walli abduction, on Jan. 18, waves of coordinated kidnappings and deadly attacks across Southern Kaduna from October 2025 to February 2026 has left local communities reeling, with mounting evidence that security forces and vigilante groups are overstretched.
Conservative estimates compiled from community leaders, Clergy and press briefings indicate that more than 212 persons have been abducted since October 2025, whereas at least 20–25 persons have been killed.
Among the abducted are at least three clergy members, including a parish priest, a reverend, and a catechist, as well as women, children, and elderly villagers, sources indicate.
Southern Kaduna State’s Kidnapping Crisis:
Lere County. 79
Zangon Kataf: 50
Kajuru County 42
Kagarko County, 32
Kauru LGA, 9
The escalation began on October 29, 2025, when gunmen attacked the Karku-Ningi community in Kauru County of Southern Kaduna.
On November 11, bandit terrorists struck Gidan-Waya, Jan-Tsauni and Mai-Yamma communities in Lere LGA.
Tribal authorities report that ransom demands in the Lere axis ran into tens of millions of naira. Community members allegedly sold farm produce to meet demands, yet 79 remain in captivity.
In Kagarko County, Rev. Fr. Bobbo Paschal of St. Stephen Catholic Parish was abducted in November and later released in January 2026 after negotiations reportedly involving ransom discussions.
In another attack in Aribi Ward, gunmen invaded Kutaho and Kugir villages around midnight,11th February 2026, abducting 32 persons — 16 from each community, including a catechist and his pregnant wife.
Fr. Linus Matthew Bobai, Parish Priest of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Kutaho, confirmed the incident to TruthNigeria saying:
“They are asking for a ransom of N20 million Naira ($14,000 dollars). How can we raise that kind of money?” he said.
The new year opened with bloodshed in Ugom Community under Maro Ward in Kajuru county.
On January 4, 2026, gunmen invaded Ehwakya (Ungwar Sarki), killing one youth, Saminu Linus Emmanuel, and abducting 42 mostly women and elderly persons.
Chairman of Ugom Community, Alhaji Ishaya Onnusim, stated in a Press Statement Monday, (16th February 2026) that “Three sections of our community have been sacked by the terrorists, leaving our people with nowhere to go.”
“We all live in fear now,” said Andrew Yohana, village head of Apiababun, Zamandabo ward, Zangon Kataf County, Southern Kaduna to TruthNigeria in Kaduna Monday (16th February 2026).
“I was advised to leave my community after every prominent person in our community and around us have either been kidnapped or their farmlands vandalized by herdsmen, ” he said.
“From November last year to January this year, the terrorists have kidnapped about 50 people, mostly men and women,” he said.
“We lost two elderly men with them last December,” he said.
“We have paid a ransom of about N15 million Naira ($10,000 dollars) last year and we are just about 500 people in my village.
He said that he believes that the Kidnappers, whom he identified as Fulani armed men, are very connected with the security and military formations around Zangon Kataf,” he added.
Security Overwhelmed
A source within the military who spoke on grounds of anonymity said that personnel are stretched thin in Southern Kaduna.
“These people live in small communities with terrible unmotorable roads that are always no less than 4 miles from each other,” he said.
“It could take an hour to cover just 4 miles. And you may have 3 villages being attacked at the same time,” he said.
Government Not Ready to End Kidnapping
“I don’t believe that the government is interested in ending the slaughter and killings of Christians in the Middle Belt,” according to Hon. Jonathan Asake, former President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU).
“All it takes is to recruit local youths from each community, train them with basic combat skills and discipline then arm them under a commander,” he said.
“I can assure you if that is done, all these cowardly Jihadists terrorists would be wiped out,” he said. “We have the manpower that is willing and capable,” he said.
Luka Binniyat writes for TruthNigeria Nigeria from Kaduna.
