Dozens abducted from Kaduna churches in mass Sunday assault

Armed assailants attacked two churches in Kurmin Wali, a remote forest community in Afogo ward of Kajuru Local Government Area in Kaduna state, seizing a large number of worshippers during Sunday services. Local church leaders and rights groups say more than 170 people were taken; dozens remained in captivity amid conflicting official tallies and an ongoing search.

Witnesses described attackers arriving in force at about 11:25 a.m., blocking church exits and forcing congregants into nearby bushland. Some people escaped during the chaos. Survivors and relatives reported panic and loss: one woman said her husband and two children were among those seized, and later learned that two children had escaped. Kaduna state police said the assailants were armed with "sophisticated weapons" and that forces had been deployed to track down perpetrators.

Church leaders, the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, and international advocacy groups provided the highest estimates, saying roughly 172 worshippers were initially taken and nine escaped. Those organizations and other local monitors later placed the number still missing in the range of about 163 to 167, a figure that reflects ongoing efforts to reconcile accounts from survivors, community leaders and local authorities. Kaduna police offered more conservative counts and said investigators had not been able to verify some reported victims.

The chairman of Kajuru Local Government Area told investigators he had found "no evidence of the attack" when consulting the village head, a statement that contrasts sharply with the accounts of survivors and faith leaders. No armed group has publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks. Reporters and analysts familiar with Kaduna's security environment describe the assailants as members of armed gangs locally known as bandits; some witnesses and commentators have attributed similar attacks in the region to Fulani militants or herders, though such attributions remain unverified for this incident.

The kidnapping is the latest in a string of mass abductions that have convulsed northern and central Nigeria in recent years. Criminal networks regularly seize villagers for ransom, exploiting porous roads, weak local policing and sparse intelligence. Analysts and civil society critics have pointed to corruption, underfunded security services and coordination failures between federal and state forces as underlying causes that allow repeated strikes on isolated communities.

The episode carries political sensitivity. The defence minister resigned the prior month amid broader scrutiny of security policy, and international partners have stepped into the fight against Islamist militants elsewhere in Nigeria - including limited US military action against militant camps. Those moves have done little to halt the banditry that targets civilians away from major population centers.

Authorities said an investigation was under way and that search and rescue operations continued. Meanwhile, relatives and church officials appealed for urgent action to secure the release of those held and to improve protections for houses of worship in rural areas. Humanitarian and faith-based groups warned that prolonged captivity will deepen trauma and strain fragile local economies that depend on farming and seasonal trade.

The episode underscores the local and international dimensions of Nigeria's security challenge: a pattern of violence that disrupts communal life, strains state capacity, and draws in diplomatic and military responses even as affected communities press for immediate safeguards and accountability.