EXCLUSIVE TO FOX: In Nigeria’s north-central region, a surge in the abduction of Christians by predominantly Muslim Fulani militants is reportedly a calculated effort to undermine, financially drain, and ultimately dismantle Christian communities. This insight comes from several sources who shared their perspectives with Fox News Digital.

“The Fulani militants use kidnapping for ransom as a strategic tool,” explained Steven Kerfas, the lead researcher at the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Their intention is not only to fund terrorist activities but also to economically cripple Christian communities.”

Kerfas elaborated on the situation in Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, noting, “These mass kidnappings are deliberate. There are instances where large groups, sometimes as many as 100 Christians, are taken into the forests and detained for extended periods. The captives are compelled to pay ransoms they can’t afford, often having to sell everything they own, including their farmland.”

Protesters carrying signs participate in a march through Abuja on March 1, 2020, during a prayer and penance event advocating for peace and security in Nigeria. The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria organized this demonstration, gathering Christians and others to condemn the brutal killings by Boko Haram insurgents and the rampant kidnappings for ransom in the country. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)

Kerfas continued, “These communities rely on subsistence farming for survival. When forced to sell their land to pay ransoms, they are left with nothing upon release.”

Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK, a global Christian organization supporting those persecuted for their faith, told Fox News Digital, “The ransom kidnapping crisis in north-central Nigeria impacts many, but Christians are clearly targeted more frequently.”

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

Blyth said, “Tactics by kidnappers include raids on churches and schools… priests and pastors are singled out because they represent high-value targets. Families and friends are often forced to sell land, livestock and property to meet the kidnappers’ demands, and it can bankrupt families for generations,” she said.

Blythe warned of the “horrific dilemma” Christians face: “Pay ransoms in the hope of saving lives, (knowing) that payment allows the attacks to continue, or refuse and risk their loved ones being slaughtered —sometimes families and communities pay the ransom, but it doesn’t lead to the kidnapped person being released alive.”

A newspaper vendor pulls a newspaper with an article reporting U.S. President Donald Trump’s message to Nigeria over the treatment of Christians, at a newspaper stand in Ojuelegba, Lagos, Nigeria, Nov. 2, 2025.  (Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters)

International Christian Concern reported that a pastor who had been kidnapped in August of last year in north-central Nigeria, the 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 Christians, they kidnap the clergy, they abduct women. They hardly kidnap any Muslims,” Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa told Fox News Digital. Musa is a pseudonym, used to protect the lawyer’s identity.

He said, “The reason for these ransom demands is to economically weaken Christians. That is the way Christians look at it.”

The lawyer added, in April this past year one church, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), said they had to pay 300 million naira ($205,000) in ransom to kidnappers, for about 50 of their members who were kidnapped in Kaduna State and Plateau State. Payments such as these place an unbearable financial strain on the church and affected families.”

Funerals for some 27 Christians who were reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in the village of Bindi Ta-hoss, Nigeria on July, 28, 2025 (Courtesy: Christian Solidarity International (CSI))

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

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

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

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