Sexual Violence Being Used to Destroy Families and Churches: Pastor
By Onibiyo Segun
MINNA, Niger state, Nigeria — “What our women are going through in Shiroro and across these farming communities is beyond words,” Pastor Joshua Adamu, an ECWA church pastor in Kotangora, Niger state, said. He added that the violence is affecting entire farming communities.
Adamu added: “When a woman cannot go to her farm, cannot sleep in her own home, and is then told her faith must change for her to live, we are no longer talking about banditry. We are talking about a deliberate humiliation of Christians.”
“As a church, we have prayed, we have buried, we have paid ransom, and we have counseled survivors who carry trauma no one sees. We are calling on government to treat sexual violence and slavery not as a side effect of insecurity, but as a weapon that is being used to destroy families and faith communities,” Adamu concluded.
Esther Adams was working near her farm in Shiroro County (Local Government Area) when armed men abducted her, took her to a forest camp and sexually assaulted her. For 11 days in May 2025, the mother of two remained captive.
“The terrorists said I must recite Islamic prayers. I refused, as I am a Christian. I was released only after so much torture and after my family paid a 3 million Naira (about $2,259) ransom”, Esther Adams told TruthNigeria reporter in a telephone chat.
Her account sits alongside documented cases involving criminal gangs and a JAS/ Boko Haram faction in Niger and Zamfara where women have been raped, abducted or forced into marriage.
Jane Yakubu, a resident of Gummi County, told TruthNigeria that armed men entered her community in August 2026 while many men had gone to market.
“The attackers separated me from my family and sexually assaulted me inside our home,” Jane said. “They threatened to kill my brother if I resisted.”
In Munya County, Soliya Yohanna told TruthNigeria that she was abducted with three other girls in late 2025 and taken toward the Alawa Forest area.
“I was held for more than two weeks and told I had been given in marriage to a fighter in the camp,” Yohanna told TruthNigeria.
Soliya said she escaped during a military patrol. She has not returned to school since.
Her testimony does not identify the abductors by name. But it corresponds with independently reported evidence of a Boko Haram faction operating in the same forest area.
Three Women, Different Armed Threats
Premium Times reported in 2025 that a Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), commonly known as Boko Haram, faction led by Mallam Sadiku had established camps around Kugu, Maganda and Dogon Fili in the Alawa Forest Reserve.
The investigation documented forced marriages involving girls from Kurebe and surrounding communities, including girls aged between 15 and 18.
A separate Premium Times investigation reported that at least nine women who had been kidnapped and forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters were intercepted while attempting to leave the forest enclave.
Zamfara’s Alin Fade Case
Zamfara provides a documented example involving a different type of armed group.
In July 2021, an armed group led by Alin Fade attacked villages in Gwalli Ward of Gummi County, including Sagon Alhaji Garbe, Sagon Bello and Bulun, according to HumAngle.
When gunfire sent many of the men fleeing, the attackers turned on the women who remained behind.
The gang reportedly gave families a choice: Allow the women to be sexually assaulted or risk the lives of their husbands and other relatives.
Women told HumAngle they were assaulted inside homes, in open spaces and in nearby bush areas.
The attacks formed part of a wider wave of violence across Gummi, Zurmi and Bakura counties (Local Government Areas) that night.
Shiroro Women Face A Wider Security Threat
The danger to women in Shiroro has also been documented outside the Alawa Forest case.
“In August 2026, a pregnant mother of three was gang-raped by seven armed men belonging to JAS/Boko Haram terrorist group in Dnakunda after residents began leaving the community following a ₦2 million (about $1,506) levy imposed before villagers could harvest their farms,” Mrs. Abigail Sarki, a women rights activist in Abuja, told TruthNigeria in a chat.
“The woman later died from injuries sustained during the assault,” Sarki added.
Systematic Rape of Kaduna’s Christian Farmers
TruthNigeria has separately documented sexual violence against women from predominantly Christian farming communities in Kaduna’s Kajuru and Kachia counties.
Survivors told TruthNigeria in a groundbreaking investigation released Oct. 15 that they were abducted from farms, taken to forest camps and sexually assaulted.
The Kaduna cases are relevant because they show a similar vulnerability among rural Christian farming communities: Women living or working in isolated areas can become exposed when armed groups take control of roads, farms or settlements.
In Zamfara, the Alin Fade case involved sexual violence during a cattle-rustling attack.
The documented evidence therefore points to different armed threats exploiting the same vulnerability: women in rural communities who can be isolated, abducted and abused with little immediate protection.
For these communities, rape and forced marriage are tools of mass population control.
They can empty farms, keep girls out of school, terrorize churches, traumatize families and make entire communities afraid to remain on land their ancestors called home for generations.
Onibiyo Segun reports on terrorism and conflict for TruthNigeria.
