NAIROBI (OSV News): Deadly violence hit Christians in Africa on January 15, with a Catholic priest in northern Nigeria burned to death and as many as 17 Christians killed in a blast in eastern Congo.
In Nigeria, Father Isaac Achi, an indigenous priest from the locale, was burned to death at his residence in Paikoro, a local government area of Niger state, Nigeria. Armed men set his house ablaze after a failed break-in at 3.00am. Another priest who was at the house, identified only as Father Collins, was shot and injured as he tried to escape.
Ordained in 1995, Father Achi recently was the parish priest of St. Peter’s and Paul Catholic Church in the Diocese of Minna.
Government and church officials in the state have condemned the killing while the Christian Association of Nigeria called for speedy investigations and arrest of the killers.
“Enough of the attacks and wanton killings of innocent Nigerian citizens,” Archbishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairperson of the association in Minna, said in a media statement. He called for the repose of Father Achi’s soul and all others killed in the violence.
The association said the attackers arrived in the area and shots were heard sporadically, before they turned on the priest’s house.
The motive for the latest attack was not immediately clear, however. In the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria, armed men—commonly referred to as “bandits” in the country—have targeted priests and pastors in the recent past, but as the West African country prepares to vote February 25, kidnappings for ransom are on the rise, according to reports.
It was not the first attack against Father Achi, who in 2011, survived an attack by the militant Boko Haram group during a Christmas service. The attack left 44 parishioners dead. He had also been shot while blessing a child and had survived an abduction by militants.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a bomb exploded on January 15 during a service at a Pentecostal church in the eastern town of Kasindi, near the border with Uganda. The death toll was estimated to be 17 people, according to figures provided by the government spokesperson, however, some sources said 10 people were killed and 39 others were injured. They had been gathered for a baptism.
The army has linked the attack to the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic extremist group originally from Uganda, operating in central Africa. In 2019, the militant group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as Daesh.
Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, condemned the attack saying he was saddened by the “heinous crime.”
