Weeks after revealing a priest was abducted by terrorists in Nigeria, a persecution watchdog has announced a positive outcome to an ordeal many feared would come to a deadly conclusion.
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Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International (CSI), previously told CBN News the Rev. Daniel Alphonsus Afina, 41, was taken June 1, 2025, while traveling from Mubi to Maiduguri.
Veldkamp, who said the priest was a partner of CSI and was on a mission to help the persecuted at the time of his abduction, said the faith leader has been released.
“On July 21st, he was set free, along with 10 women who were being held hostage by Boko Haram, this Islamist terrorist group that has been terrorizing Christians in Nigeria for a decade and a half now,” he said. “This is really a tremendous answer to our prayers, to the prayers of many of our followers and supporters around the world who’ve been praying for this man.”
Veldkamp expressed gratitude for the priest’s safe return and said he is currently back at his diocese resting and recovering, though specific details have not been released.
“There’s only so much that we can say because … it is a sensitive issue,” he said. “But he was held in captivity for 51 days, and then, on July 21st, he was handed over to … Nigerian security forces, who then brought him to his diocese in Maiduguri in Nigeria.”
The persecution watchdog stated that it was a “peaceful handover,” and although it is unclear what led to the release, Afina is now safe despite needing some unspecified medical attention.
“He is recovering,” Veldkamp added. “We’re told he’s in very high spirits, but his family’s asking for privacy right now as he tries to recover from this terrible ordeal.”
Afina helps deliver aid to Christians in Nigeria who have been driven from their homes by Boko Haram, and CSI believes it’s no coincidence the prominent faith leader was taken during one of those missions.
Veldkamp said Boko Haram’s mission is to “establish an Islamic state in Nigeria and drive all the Christians out of Nigeria,” a nation filled with more than 200 million people.
“About half of those people are Christians,” he said. “But, in the north of Nigeria, it’s a heavily Muslim-majority area, and that’s where Boko Haram has been the most active and where they have succeeded in killing thousands of Christians and driving many, many more out of the region.”
But this is only one of the problem areas in Nigeria.
“There are basically two conflict zones where Christians are really under attack,” he said. “The first is where [Afina] was operating in the area of Maiduguri in the northeast of Nigeria. This is Boko Haram’s homeland. This is where you’ll get these horrific church bombings, mass abductions of women and children, all different kinds of terrorist attacks designed to drive the Christian population out.”
Veldkamp said there’s also another problem region in Nigeria where CSI is intensely involved and where persecution is even more pronounced — an area called the “Middle Belt,” which is “religiously mixed.”
“We’re seeing a slow-motion ethnic cleansing campaign, where militias drawn from the Muslim Fulani ethnic group are attacking Christian villages, massacring the people who live there, and driving the survivors out,” he said. “Almost every week, another village in this Middle Belt of Nigeria is hit.”
As previously reported, Afina is a new partner who moved back to Nigeria from Alaska in 2024. He had spent seven years working throughout the U.S. state, but felt called to return to Nigeria, despite the dangers and risks to Christians.
“He made the choice to return to Nigeria to serve his people,” Veldkamp previously said. “While he was in Alaska, he was taking special courses in counseling and therapy with the intention of helping Nigerians who have been traumatized by these attacks.”
Persecution continues to be a horrific problem in Nigeria, where nearly half of the population is Christian and the other half is Muslim. Islamic extremism has driven the majority of the killings and chaos, with the northern portion of the nation, which is mostly Muslim, experiencing the most intense anti-Christian sentiment and attacks.
“Nigeria is the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian,” Veldkamp said. “More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than any other country in the world by far.”
Veldkamp is hoping to see the U.S. place more pressure on the Nigerian government. One such step in that direction would be for the U.S. State Department to once again list Nigeria on its Countries of Particular Concern list, a roster of nations with religious liberty restrictions. The Trump administration added Nigeria before the nation was removed under former President Joe Biden’s tenure.
As CBN News has extensively explored, Nigeria is consistently found by watchdogs to be the most deadly nation for believers.
“We documented almost 10,000 killings of Christians, mostly in the north and middle part of that country,” Isaac Six, the former senior director of advocacy for Global Christian Relief (GCR), told CBN News earlier this year. “And, again, that is systematic violence being perpetrated and led by groups like Boko Haram, and Islamic State West Africa Province, and then other armed groups.”
Ultimately, Isaac said Christians in America need to understand the extent of the terror.
“The church in America really has to hear how horrific some of these stories are,” he said. “It’s not just violence. It’s not just killings. It is brutal atrocities. And, frankly, the church has to wake up to some of this. Only a fraction of believers in America are even aware of what’s happening.”
Other persecution trackers have also extensively documented the severity of the issue. Open Doors’ World Watch List 2025 placed Nigeria in the seventh spot in its rankings of nations where anti-Christian persecution and discrimination are the worst.
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