Saturday, June 21, 2025

Popular News

HomeNewsAfricaBishops call for the release of kidnapped seminarians

Bishops call for the release of kidnapped seminarians

The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria are appealing for the release of four major seminarians kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria, by unknown gunmen on the night of 8 January.

Vatican News – Vatican City

RECOWA, the Catholic Bishops’ West African regional office based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast says the Catholic Bishops of Nigerian have appealed to the kidnappers to release the seminarians. No further details were made available.  Sources in Nigeria further told RECOWA  that the kidnappers have made contact with the families of the abducted seminarians but did not demand a ransom.

First-year philosophy students

The four missing seminarians, Pius Kanwai, 19; Peter Umenukor, 23; Stephen Amos, 23; and Michael Nnadi, 18 are first-year philosophy students at Kaduna’s Good Shepherd Seminary.

The students were kidnapped from the seminary in Kaduna, in northwestern Nigeria at about 10.30 pm when gunmen wearing military fatigue breached the seminary’ security fence and started shooting indiscriminately. Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

The seminary has 268 students.

Boko Haram have a history of mass kidnappings

The assault on the seminary was all too familiar in a region where Boko Haram and other Islamist groups use brutal and brazen methods to reinforce their reign of terror. Kidnappings, especially mass kidnappings, are a reprehensible but common ploy for the militants to court media attention, forced recruitment to their ranks but also as a way to extort money through demands for ransom.

Popular News

Nigerian Church grateful for Pope Leo XIV’s support and prayers over killings in Benue State

An editorial for the Nigerian Catholic Network, written by Church authorities at the Catholic...

Zimbabwe: Poor Clare Sisters offer contemplative prayer as comfort to many

Though cloistered and largely unseen, the Poor Clare Sisters in Zimbabwe quietly shape the...

Ethiopia hosts first Pan-African Focolare gathering

Ethiopia was the host of the first Pan-African International Conference of the Focolare Spiritual...

Pope prays for victims of ‘terrible massacre’ in Benue State, Nigeria

At the Sunday Angelus, Pope Leo prays for victims of conflicts in Nigeria, Sudan,...