Four Catholic nuns were abducted on a highway in Nigeria’s oil-producing southeastern Imo state on Monday, according to a local convent. This is the latest indication of a pervasive lack of protection that has made road travel unsafe.
Armed gangs have been kidnapping individuals, including priests, from villages and highways for ransom, mostly in the northwest, and the practise has expanded to other regions of the country, increasing the threat in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to Zita Ijedora, the General Secretary of the Sisters of Jesus, Generalate of the Savior, the four were kidnapped on Sunday while driving from Rivers State to Imo for a Thanksgiving mass.
“We ask for intense prayer for their speedy and safe release,” Ijedora said in a statement.
The Nigerian military started an air operation in the region’s northwest to eradicate the armed groups responsible for kidnapping civilians from villages and towns.