Researchers have alleged that Christians in north-central Nigeria are being systematically kidnapped by Fulani militants.
“Kidnapping for ransom is a strategic aim of the Fulani militants,” Steven Kerfas of the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) told Fox News. “They do it to fund their terrorism, but also to bankrupt the Christian community.”
“These mass abductions are targeted. You have cases where 100 Christians will be marched into the forest and kept there for months. You know, they are forced to cough out ransoms they don’t have, so they have to sell everything – [including] their farmland,” he added.
“They survive through this subsistence agriculture. Now you force them to sell the farmland that they are surviving on to pay ransom. So by the time you release them, what do they go back to? Nothing,” he concluded.
They went on live video and boldly displayed the ransom money they collected from someone they kidnapped.
They bragged about it.
They even advised other bandits to “be strict” so they too can cash out millions.Fulani Militia have turned this to tribal main hustle. pic.twitter.com/ceS7rEcjDD
— Akanbi (@info_deuth) November 19, 2025
Fulani militants are reportedly targeting everybody, though they’re singling out Christians.
“The kidnapping for ransom epidemic in north-central Nigeria doesn’t just affect Christians, but it’s clear that they are disproportionately singled out,” Henrietta Blyth of Open Doors UK, a global Christian charity, said.
“In the (Nigerian) Middle Belt, they kidnap Christians, they kidnap the clergy, they abduct women — they hardly kidnap any Muslims,” Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa added. “The reason for these ransom demands is to economically weaken Christians. That is the way Christians look at it.”
According to Blyth’s charity, nearly 4,500 Christians (2.4 times more than Muslims) were abducted between 2020 and 2025.
“Tactics by kidnappers include raids on churches and schools,” Blyth continued. “Priests and pastors are singled out because they represent high-value targets. Families and friends are often forced to sell land, livestock, and property to meet the kidnappers’ demands, and it can bankrupt families for generations.”
She went on to describe the “horrific dilemma” that targeted Christians face in Nigeria.
“Pay ransoms in the hope of saving lives, (knowing) that payment allows the attacks to continue, or refuse and risk their loved ones being slaughtered – sometimes families and communities pay the ransom, but it doesn’t lead to the kidnapped person being released alive,” she said.
Indeed, last year a pastor was kidnapped in August, held for several weeks, and then murdered — despite his ransom being paid.
We lost him
Fulani herdsmen ravaging communities In Kwara State have brutally killed Reverend James Audu Issa, a pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA),
His family, church, and community members struggled for weeks to meet the abductors’ demands in the hope of… pic.twitter.com/5aEuHU1Szx
— Attama Kuza (@attamakuza) October 5, 2025
According to Musa, the lawyer, one church paid 300 million naira ($205,000) in ransom to the Fulani last April just to secure the release of a paltry 50 members of their congregation.
“The Fulani militants are on a jihad, and, of course, they need to fund that jihad, so the Christians being abducted have to cough out huge sums as ransoms,” Kerfas noted. “If you don’t pay ransom, you get killed. And sometimes, even after paying the ransom, you still get killed.”
This Sheilk Ahmed Gumi the leader of fulani terrorists and bandits in Northern Nigeria, he openly promotes violence around Nigeria and the Nigeria government is looking away from his atrocities and he remains untouchable pic.twitter.com/ZiXADaDCyV
— Omon (@ojoteosas) January 1, 2026
Genocide Watch reported last August that Nigeria’s military was “facing growing criticism for its failure to stop the wave of Fulani militia attacks sweeping the Middle Belt.”
The site gave an example of something that had occurred a month earlier: “On July 15, Fulani terrorists stormed Tashoss in Riyom County, Plateau State, killing at least 27 Christian residents, burning homes and a church, and stealing food supplies meant for the rainy season. A military checkpoint was nearby. No attacker was arrested.”
Governor Caleb Mutfwang, to his credit, slammed the military and his sector commander.
“These attackers are not spirits,” he said at the time in a statement. “Real people carried out these atrocities and vanished without a trace. You were in charge when arrests were made for a soldier’s death. Why are there no arrests today?”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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