A Nigerian Catholic priest who recently served in the United States has been abducted by extremists along with other travellers in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, the church said.
The Rev. Alphonsus Afina was kidnapped on June 1 near the northeastern town of Gwoza, close to the border with Cameroon, by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, Bishop John Bogna Bakeni of Maiduguri told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Bakeni said that he spoke with the priest over the phone a day after the abduction. Afina, though exhausted from trekking, was “sounding OK” and “in good spirits” during the brief conversation, according to the bishop.
The priest was traveling from the city of Mubi, where he is based, to Maidiguri, the capital of Borno, for a workshop when his convoy was ambushed by armed men while waiting for clearance at a military checkpoint, he said.
A rocket-propelled grenade hit one of the vehicles, killing one person and wounding others, according to the bishop.
Bakeni said it was difficult to determine if the priest was specifically targeted, given the number of travelers caught in the ambush. Other travelers were also abducted, he said, although it was unclear how many.
Nigerian authorities haven’t publicly commented on the abductions and didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Rev. Robert Fath, the vicar general of the diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday that he had received a phone call from Boko Haram confirming they had Afina.
Afina served in Alaska from 2017 to 2024 before returning to Nigeria, where he works with the Justice, Development and Peace Commission, a Catholic social justice group.
Nigerian authorities are struggling to stem rising violence in the north and central regions where armed groups, including Boko Haram, target rural communities, killing thousands and abducting people to ransom.
The attacks sometimes target religious figures such as clerics. In March, a priest in central Nigeria was kidnapped and killed by unidentified armed men.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis, took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. The conflict has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors and resulted in the death of around 35,000 civilians and the displacement of more than 2 million others, according to the United Nations.
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