The Voice of the suffering in Africa

In the Taraba State region, according to Church figures, over 100 people have been killed and 90,000 displaced since September 2025. Following a fresh massacre, the Church in Nigeria’s Middle Belt has again called for action to address extremist violence. Ten villagers died in Tuesday’s February 10 attack on Mchia in Taraba State, northeastern Nigeria, apparently carried out by militant members of the Fulani herder community. On February 12, senior clerics from Wukari Diocese – Fr. Anthony Bature, Fr. James ...

Over the past days, several Catholic organizations and dioceses have issued calls for the government to deploy more military and police personnel to stem the bloodshed and criminality that holds sway over large parts of the country. The Catholic Church in northern Nigeria has intensified its public pressure on the government in recent days, following a new wave of attacks in the country’s north and central regions that have left hundreds dead and many more abducted. On February 3, over ...

Ongoing attacks point to need for greater security. Local bishop appealing to government for more military camps. Some members of the group kidnapped from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria, were kept in cages, a priest said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need-USA. Fr. Luka Joseph Jatau, director of the Justice and Peace Development Commission in the Diocese of Kontagora, Nigeria, spoke by phone with the pontifical foundation January 6, discussing details of the ...

The New Year has not begun peacefully in Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Kontagora. Just as the final days of 2025 were marked by violence and fear, early January 2026 has brought fresh bloodshed, including the massacre of 42 men in the village of Kasuwan Daji, not far from Papiri, where more than 200 schoolchildren were abducted in November. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) expresses its deep concern and strongly condemns the recent wave of violent attacks in the ...

There have been 212 clergy kidnappings since 2015. Between 2015 and 2025, at least 212 Catholic priests were kidnapped in Nigeria, in a wave of violence that affects the whole country. This is revealed by an ongoing study carried out by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria shared with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The research documents kidnappings in at least 41 of the country’s 59 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses. The data is consistent with ...

There are hopeful signs that the remaining students who were kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school last month will be home for Christmas. The Diocese of Kontagora, in the west-central State of Niger, confirmed the release of “the second batch” of those abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri November 21. “We are profoundly grateful to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Niger State Government, the security agencies, and all other partners whose efforts and interventions ...