By Francis Ngahu

NAIROBI, AUGUST 28, 2026 (CISA) – Nigeria’s Catholic bishops crossed a religious line this week to stand beside the victims of one of the country’s deadliest attacks on a house of worship. In a statement issued Wednesday, August 26, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) prayed for the “immediate and safe release” of more than 60 Muslim worshippers abducted from a mosque in Borgu, Niger State, even as it mourned 47 people killed in a separate massacre in Ukum, Benue State, where 17 others were left critically wounded.

“An attack on any place of worship is an attack on our collective humanity,” the bishops said in the statement, titled “Stop The Slaughter In Borgu And Ukum, Stop The Killings In Nigeria” and signed by CBCN President Archbishop Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso of Kaduna. The Archbishop described Nigeria’s security situation as having reached an “intolerable crest.”

The solidarity was not new territory for Borgu. In January, gunmen operating from the forests around Kainji Lake National Park attacked Kasuwan Daji market in the same council area and killed about 30 people. In June, bandits returned to Dekara, burned down a primary school and reportedly collected a levy from terrified residents. On August 21, they came back a third time – storming four communities during Friday prayers and seizing dozens of worshippers, among them the Chief Imam of Dekara Central Mosque.

The bishops did not simply mourn the dead. They named what they see as the failure behind the pattern. While commending “some efforts being made” by the authorities, the CBCN pressed political leaders and security chiefs to change course rather than keep responding after the fact. “You do not give up on this responsibility until the security and welfare of the citizens are guaranteed,” the statement said, calling for intelligence-led operations that dismantle criminal networks before they strike, and for the prosecution of attackers and their sponsors “irrespective of their status or affiliations.” The bishops were blunt about why: “Impunity fuels repetition.”

That word – repetition, carries particular weight in Borgu, where residents have now buried victims of three major attacks within eight months.

The CBCN also extended condolences to grieving families in Benue and prayed for those still recovering from their wounds. Scripture framed the bishops’ final appeal, directed not at the government but at the attackers themselves. Citing Genesis 4:10 — “The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground” — the bishops rejected any political, ethnic or religious justification for the killings. They closed with a warning drawn from Galatians 6:7: “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Even so, the CBCN asked Nigerians not to despair. “May the God of peace restore order to our nation, comfort those who mourn, and touch the hearts of those who inflict pain,” the bishops said, calling the faithful to persevere in prayer while the search for the missing worshippers in Borgu continues.