Gunmen have stormed a church in Nigeria, shooting dead one of the worshippers and kidnapping more than a hundred others.

The raid in Kaduna State in the centre of the country also left two Christians critically ill in hospital, according to initial reports.

The attackers swept into the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Kakau Daji when telecom networks were down, meaning that no-one could contact the authorities for help.

The kidnappers are demanding a ransom for the release of the Christians.

The family of one victim said the kidnappers told them that they had to pay more because the gunmen had to go the extra mile for network service before they were able to contact the families of their victims.

Jo Newhouse, Open Doors Sub Saharan Africa spokesperson, said that insecurity in the region is “creating an ideal breeding ground for extremism”.

 She said: “This kidnapping is a shocking example of the audacity of the so-called bandits and the impunity that is escalating, seemingly without bounds in Nigeria.

 “The government is grossly failing its citizens in this matter and the continuing lawlessness is creating an ideal breeding ground for extremism. 

 “We call on the international Body of Christ to remain in fervent prayer for the release of the church members and that the Lord will use this situation to bring a breakthrough in this situation. 

 “Pray for the Lord’s protection over these believers and that they will experience His peace in the midst of the situation.”

 Rev. Joseph Haya of the Christian Association of Nigeria Kaduna branch told Politics Nigeria, a national newspaper, that the security situation in the Kaduna State was getting worse in spite of government assurances to the contrary.

 “We are seriously worried now,” he said. “Gunmen are gradually approaching the township.”

 Nigeria is one of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa where Christians and Muslims compete for territory and influence.

Some attacks on Christians in the north of the country are carried out by a minority of Fulani herdsmen, an ethnic group of 20 million Muslims.

The Fulani constitutes an ethnic group of 20 million people and only a minority of these could be considered extremists.

But their activities, coupled with those of Boko Haram, an Islamist group which since 2015 has been affiliated to Islamic State, along with the inability of the government to halt the violence, has rendered Nigeria the 12th worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to Open Doors.

The United Nations has estimated that since 2011 Boko Haram has killed more than 15,200 Nigerians, and forced 1.7 million others from their homes as it has sought to turn Nigeria into an Islamic nation ruled by Sharia law.

It has splintered into two branches – one of which calls itself the Islamic State West African Province – and, in spite of setbacks at the hands of Nigerian armed forces, between them they still command up to 6,000 Islamist fighters who continue to destroy schools and villages and abduct hundreds of people.

Among those recently kidnapped were three seminarians taken by raiders from their college chapel.

The fourth-year theology students were set free by their abductors 48 hours after they were snatched from Christ the King Seminary, near Kafanchan, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity which supports persecuted and other suffering Christians, Fr Emmanuel Faweh Kazah, a teacher at the seminary, said Christians were defiant in the face of threats and violence.

He said: “We were beaten but we won’t stay down. We won’t allow ourselves to be cowed by threats emanating from men and women of the underworld.

“We will courageously carry the torch of the gospel to the ends of the earth, notwithstanding the barrage of attacks on the Christian faith.”

The persecution of Christians is compounded by Nigeria’s deepening financial problems, which have caused a spike in abductions for ransoms.

Church leaders have declared a policy of not paying ransoms.

(Photo of wreckage of a raid in Kaduna courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need)

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