FIRST ON FOX: The wave of kidnappings targeting Christians in north-central Nigeria by mostly Muslim groups is a deliberate strategy to target, bankrupt, and destroy communities, multiple sources told Digital.

“Kidnapping for ransom is a key objective of Fulani militants,” Steven Kerfas, lead researcher for the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), told Digital. He added, “They use it to fund their terrorism and also to push the Christian community into financial ruin.”

In Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, “these groups are targeted,” Kerfas said. “There are cases where 100 Christians are led into the forest and held for months. They’re forced to come up with ransoms they don’t have, so they have to sell everything—including their farmland.”

He continued, “They rely on subsistence agriculture to survive. Now they’re made to sell the farmland they depend on to pay the ransom. So when they’re released, what do they go back to? Nothing.”

Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK—a global Christian charity that supports Christians persecuted for their faith—told Digital, “The ransom kidnapping crisis in north-central Nigeria doesn’t just affect Christians, but it’s clear they’re disproportionately singled out.”

Open Doors reports that 4,407 Christians were abducted in Nigeria’s north-central region between 2020 and 2025. When adjusted for population size, a Christian was 2.4 times more likely than a Muslim to be kidnapped, the organization claims.

Blyth said, “Kidnappers use tactics like raids on churches and schools… Priests and pastors are targeted because they represent high-value targets. Families and friends often have to sell land, livestock, and property to meet the kidnappers’ demands, which can bankrupt families for generations.”

Blyth warned of the “horrific dilemma” Christians face: “Pay ransoms hoping to save lives—knowing payment lets attacks continue—or refuse and risk their loved ones being slaughtered. Sometimes families and communities pay the ransom, but the kidnapped person still isn’t released alive.”

International Christian Concern reported that a pastor kidnapped in August last year in north-central Nigeria, Rev. James Audu Issa, was held for several weeks and then killed—even though a ransom had been paid.

“In the (Nigerian) Middle Belt, they kidnap clergy, they abduct women. They hardly kidnap any Muslims,” Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa told Digital. Musa is a pseudonym used to protect the lawyer’s identity.

He said, “The purpose of these ransom demands is to weaken Christians economically. That’s how Christians view it.”

The lawyer added that in April this year, one church—the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA)—said it had to pay 300 million naira ($205,000) in ransom for about 50 members kidnapped in Kaduna State and Plateau State. Payments like these place an unbearable financial strain on the church and affected families.

Kerfas added, “Fulani militants are waging jihad, and of course, they need to fund that jihad. So the Christians being abducted have to pay huge sums as ransoms.”

Christian communities are the majority in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. But the Fulani militants’ stated goal of wiping out Christian communities through kidnapping leaves their future desperate and bleak.

Kerfas warned, “If you don’t pay the ransom, you get killed. And sometimes, even after paying, you still get killed.”

Digital reached out to the Nigerian government but did not receive a response.