Nigeria is about evenly divided: a little more than half the country’s 206 million people are Muslim, a little fewer than half are Christian. In the northern part of the country, Islam stands as the dominant faith, while Christianity stands in the South – but most of the killings take place in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where the halves of the country meet. While religion was not originally an issue linked to conflict in Nigeria, it has risen to the fore.

Open Doors, the charity supporting persecuted Christians around the world, published its 2021 list of the countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution

The diocese in southeastern Nigeria announced late on Jan. 1 that Bishop Moses Chikwe and his driver, Ndubuisi Robert, had been released by their abductors “unhurt and without ransom.”

Then-Father Moses Chikwe studied at Loyola Marymount University and UCLA. He served six years as priest-in-residence at St. Joseph’s Cathedral and as chaplain to the La Jolla VA hospital, and frequently said Mass at St. Mark's parish in San Marcos, CA.

Bishop Moses Chikwe “is said to have been kidnapped in the night of Sunday 27 December 2020,” the secretary general of the Nigerian bishops’ conference has reported.

Since the 60th anniversary of Nigerian Independence from British rule, the Nigerian government has struggled to quell public discontent.

A report has urged the UK to sanction Nigerian officials accused of turning a blind eye to the persecution of Christians.

Islamic extremists, Wolf said, have killed more people in Nigeria than ISIS did in the Middle East, yet there is far less attention on the plight of Nigerian Christians