In Nigeria, data show an increase in violence against Christians, especially clergy, while insecurity has generally risen.
Catholic Priest John Paul made a sign of the cross on the foreheads of believers on Wednesday at the Church of the Assumption of our Lady of The Assumption in Lagos on Wednesday at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lagos
LAGOS, Nigeria – Five armed men walk in the empty parish office of the Parish of King Christ in Yadin Garu, a southern town in northwestern Nigeria, on July 15 by Father Donatus Cleopas and Father Mark Chetnumum.
Cleopas said two men wielded AK-47 rifles, the other with a machete and the other two with sticks.
The gunmen confiscated the phones of the two priests, who were left behind to celebrate Mass after the consecration in that parish, and took them to the muddy ground of a corn farm near the parish.
There, Cheitnum was shot, his body was left in the rain, and his colleagues were taken away.
"We didn't have any scuffles, nothing," Cleopas, who has since regained his freedom, told Al Jazeera. "All I can think of is because maybe Father Mark is wearing canvas [shoes] and he can't keep up with our pace.
According to data and experts, their ordeal is the most recent in the trend of attacks on Christians in Nigeria in recent years.
According to the Sites of Armed Conflict and Incident Data Project (ACLED), there has been a surge in violence against Christians based on religious identity, just as political violence against civilians has generally been on the rise.
Its data shows that attacks on Christians in the country increased by 21 percent in 2021 compared to 2020. On average, the number of monthly attacks increased by more than 25% last year.
In June, gunmen killed dozens of people at a Catholic church in Ondo, highlighting possible religious overtones of the country's insecurity. The state government blamed the incident on isWAP (Islamic State of West African Provinces), which is linked to ISIL, but the group has yet to claim responsibility.
Experts say attacks on churches are also increasingly targeting Christian leaders because of the dangerous dimension of the actions of armed groups across the country.
Some clerics who survived the abduction refused to speak with Al Jazeera about their ordeal. One said it would pose a direct threat to his life if he spoke to the media about his experience, while another declined to speak after initially agreeing to be interviewed for fears of safety.
Clerics are increasingly under attack in Nigeria
"Endangered Species"
In August, a vehicle carrying four nuns was ambushed from the southeastern state of Imo to the neighboring river state of the Niger Delta. Police claimed to have rescued the nuns within days of their abduction, but did not comment on whether the ransom was paid.
In fact, according to ACLED's database, which compiled records of local media coverage of 99 independent attacks on Nigerian clerics, ranging from kidnappings to outright murders, between January 2020 and July 2022.
"These data are a very vivid reflection of what is happening to us today in the economic hardship and booming kidnapping ransom industry," said Olajumoke Ayandele, a former ACLED researcher who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at NYU's Center for Africa and the African Diaspora.
A breakdown of attacks shows that 34 occurred in 2020, 36 in 2021 and 29 in the first seven months of 2022, a sharp increase compared to the previous decade, when similar incidents rarely occurred.
Experts say the numbers may not even represent the whole picture.
"I think the numbers are much higher," Ayandele told Al Jazeera. "A lot of the content that comes into the media is a high-profile case. We underestimate these numbers.
As Nigeria faces multifaceted security concerns, multiple non-State actors, including armed groups for religious reasons, bandits and unidentified armed groups, are seen as a rise in attacks.
Since 2020, six of these attacks have been attributed to organizations such as Boko Haram and its offshoots ISWAP and Ansaru; Another 30 were carried out by armed bandits and 61 by unidentified gunmen.
The attack also spread to six geopolitical regions of the country.
In the north-central region, 32 attacks were recorded, making it the deadliest area for Christian clerics in Nigeria since 2020. Nine and 17 cases were recorded in the north-east and 17 cases, respectively, in the north-east and northwest.
The southwest is generally considered the safest area in Nigeria, with 11 attacks, while there were 15 attacks in the south-east and south-south regions.
"Unfortunately, pastors and priests are becoming endangered species in this country," Pastor Polycarp Lubo, Chairman of Plateau State of the Christian Council of Nigeria, told Al Jazeera. "Priests themselves are not rich, so we don't know why they lead to killings and kidnappings by priests and priests. CAN is not happy with the whole thing and we totally condemn it.
Attacks on clerics are spread across six geopolitical regions of Nigeria
"High Value Goals"
Between 2014 and 2020, a series of school kidnappings occurred in Nigeria, including the high-profile kidnapping of chibok schoolgirls, making global headlines.
Security experts say the focus of perpetrators has shifted from schoolchildren to professional groups to gain attention and legitimacy as an armed group.
Schools in some northwestern states, as well as schools in parts of central Nigeria, are closed for academic reasons for security reasons, which could also lead to a change in strategy.
"The possible explanation for priests is simple, kidnappers pursue money and priests represent high value in terms of ransom payments," said Malik Samuel, an Abuja researcher at the Institute for Security Studies. "Nothing can stop them from moving on to others if steps are taken to protect the priests."
"When you kidnap or kill a Christian priest, you get local and international attention, which gives legitimacy to your ransom demand, saying: 'We're very serious,'" Ayandler said. In fact, the government is under pressure and the Christian Council of Nigeria (CAN) is under pressure to yield to the ransom ... This is very targeted.
Different armed groups target clerics
The Catholic Church is the hardest-hit denomination, and data shows that half of all 120 clergy abducted or killed during this period — including nuns and nuns — are within its scope.
The church has not formally commented on the payment of a ransom to the kidnapped liberal clerics, but it is believed that the ransom is still being paid.
"We [on behalf of all churches] have been paying the ransom because life is more important than money," Lubo said. "They have been having a negative and serious impact on Christians, especially on the priest's family. The ransom is huge for the church and devastating for the family. People have been going beyond their power to save lives.
The chairman called the attacks "persecution of Christians in Nigeria," echoing the views of some Christian leaders about the attacks.
But security researchers told Al Jazeera that the kidnapping was driven by the church's ability to pay ransom, not a religious factor, except in the case of Boko Haram and its affiliates.
"When there is unresolved conflict, there are other actors who take advantage of it," Samuel said. "It tends to breed more insecurity. The abductions we have seen are not exactly a jihadist issue.
But he added that the situation is "moving towards a confrontation between Muslims and Christians."
Four days after the kidnapping, Cleopas escaped. His captors, who are paying Cheitnum a ransom of 3.6 million naira ($8,443) — even if they killed him — have been nodded by the members of the squad they left on guard duty.
It was an experience that the priest still remembers vividly.
"My experience in those four days was hell," he told Al Jazeera. "In a way, I even crave death, even more than to be with them, because it's inhuman and animalistic. They told me they were going to kill me.