The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has raised the alarm over the abduction of 15 Christian married women from Kilakasa Village, Dille District, Uba Emirate, Uba/Askira Local Government Area in southern Borno.
The women were taken by Boko Haram terrorists while fishing by a nearby river on 18 December 2025.
In a statement issued on Monday, the forum’s President, Dr. Pogu Bitrus Saidu, said: “These women who are all Christians of the Marghi ethnic group, are mothers, caregivers and pillars of their families. They are aged 30 to 40, and all have children; at least one woman has six young children left without a mother.
“Despite immediate reporting to police, and partial ransom efforts by families, communication with the abductors has mysteriously ceased, and no rescue operation has been put in place, to the best of our understanding.
“The complete silence by the Nigerian media on such a grave crime is curious and deeply troubling. Each day that passes without information adds to the anguish of loved ones and reinforces fear in our communities in the Middle Belt areas of Borno State.”
On the mass abduction of worshippers in Kaduna State, Saidu explained that the forum continues to anxiously await credible news on the 166 Adara worshippers abducted from three churches in Kurmin Wali Village, Kajuru Local Government Area of southern Kaduna.
He said that 15 days ago, they were compelled to draw urgent global attention to another mass abduction that has remained largely unreported despite its gravity.
According to the statement: “Compounding our sorrow and alarm is the total lack of any update or situation report on the 166 worshippers kidnapped in Kurmin Wali. The silence of the Kaduna State Government and Kaduna State Police Command, who at first even denied the crime, is not only unsettling, it is heartlessly insensitive to victims’ families and the wider public who deserve transparency about those who were violently taken from worship 15 days today.”
He added: “We must now also condemn the recent coordinated attack on Agwara Town in Niger State, which lies in the Middle Belt region’s security crisis. In the early hours of Sunday, armed bandits stormed the community, overpowered local security forces, set the divisional police station ablaze, attacked a church and abducted at least five residents.
“Reports indicate that the devastation has left families traumatised and the town in panic as inhabitants face further insecurity and fear for loved ones still missing.”
The attack on Agwara, like many others in the Middle Belt, he observed, “reflects a disturbing pattern of barbarity that includes [attacks on] worship centres, schools, police installations and civilian communities.”
The forum strongly condemned the continuing daily kidnappings and attacks in southern Kaduna, particularly in Kauru, Kachia, Lere, Chikun and Kagarko LGAs, noting that perpetrators act with apparent impunity. It lamented that this unrelenting criminality underscores the deep insecurity that local military and security agencies have struggled to contain.
The MBF observed that, despite Kaduna State’s large geographic size and resources, it lacks a properly trained, equipped and funded civilian security support force—a glaring gap compared with neighbouring states that have established community defence collaborations with formal security services.
The forum said: “It is therefore profoundly disappointing that the much-touted Kaduna Peace Model has coincided with unprecedented waves of kidnappings and mass displacements of communities, often executed by the very Fulani bandits allegedly reintegrated through pardons by Governor Uba Sani in 2024 and placed under some welfare of Kaduna State government.
“That is why a well designed, executed and targeted violence on the Christian majority ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt, gives credence to the now globally acknowledged Christian genocide in Nigeria.”
He hailed the swift rescue of 12 girls abducted by Boko Haram from a communal farm in Mussa District, Askira Emirate, just four days after their capture by troops of Operation Hadin Kai, and urged the same level of urgency, focus and commitment for the 15 women still held by the terrorists.
The MBF therefore demands immediate, transparent updates on all abducted persons, particularly the 15 women of Dille Town in Askira/Uba LGA and the 166 worshippers from Kajuru LGA.
It also called for swift, coordinated rescue operations with measurable outcomes, as well as protection strategies that uphold citizens’ constitutional rights to life and security, reiterating that the lives of these women and all other abducted persons matter.
MBF demands urgent action over abductees in Borno, Kaduna
