Currently, more Christians are being systematically murdered in Nigeria than in all other countries of concern combined.

In 2025, over 7,000 Nigerian Christians were murdered by Islamic militants, including Boko Haram, also known as JAS, Islamic State – West African Province (ISWAP), JNIM, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, and Fulani and Koyam militias. Countless others have been abducted and held for ransom or never returned.

The problem has been described by prominent voices as “Islamization” and “Fulanization.” Violence in 2026 is already outpacing previous years, and with Nigerian general elections approaching, political tensions are high.

Federal and state intervention remains limited, and attacks continue on an almost daily basis across the North, East, and Middle Belt regions. Over Passion Week, violence struck Christian communities throughout the Middle Belt, specifically in Kaduna and Jos.

Open Doors documented 2,830 Christians kidnapped in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025 alone, Intersociety recorded 7,800 Christians kidnapped, approximately 35 per day.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa reported that over four years the Fulani Ethnic Militia alone carried out over 21,000 abductions in the North-Central Zone and Southern Kaduna, with return rates not publicly tracked. Of those taken, 91 Chibok girls remain unaccounted for, along with an unknown number from subsequent school kidnappings whose release was never confirmed.

Four kidnapped Catholic priests remain in captivity as of early 2026. Fr. John Bako Shekwolo has been missing since 2019, kidnapped from the Archdiocese of Kaduna.

Fr. Joseph Igweagu was taken in 2022 and has not been heard from since. Fr. Emmanuel Ezema remains in captivity with no confirmed release or proof of life. Fr. Nathaniel Asuwaye, parish priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in Karku, Kaduna State, was kidnapped on February 7, 2026, when gunmen raided his parish and residence, and his status remains unconfirmed.

Between 2015 and 2025, at least 145 Catholic priests were kidnapped and 11 killed in Nigeria. Kaduna was the deadliest state, with 24 priests abducted and seven killed. In the Diocese of Minna alone, more than 90 churches have closed due to chronic insecurity.

Priests are targeted because they are easily identified, generally unprotected, and their communities make extraordinary efforts to raise ransom.

A communications director for one Nigerian diocese told Catholic News Agency: “It’s easier to kidnap priests, and give him little torture, and money will come out of it,” adding that no priest comes out of captivity without ransom being paid.

A diocese in Edo State reported that in the past decade, six of its priests had been kidnapped and tortured before release. Fr. Alphonsus Afina, kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2025, was confirmed alive through unofficial channels.

His diocese in Alaska reported he was recovering from wounds on his legs from being bound tightly when captured and had been allowed to speak by phone to confirm he was alive.

Not all captives survive. Gunmen abducted four seminarians from Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna and released three, but killed 18-year-old Michael Nnadi after he refused to renounce his Christian faith.

A man claiming responsibility later gave an interview stating he executed Nnadi because he would not stop proclaiming his faith in captivity.

Lay captives face the same conditions. One survivor of a church kidnapping in Kaduna stated: “After the terrorists took us from the church, we trekked for a long distance without food and water and those who couldn’t walk fast were flogged and brutalised by the terrorists. I have bad injuries on my head.”

Boys are raped and forced to become fighters. The UN documented 210 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Nigeria in 2020 alone, including rape affecting 30 boys, with male victims recounted being held in a designated location where their role was to serve Boko Haram members sexually.

Amnesty International documented that boys are regularly conscripted, trained on weapons, and forced into combat operations against their own families and communities. Christian girls are given the choice of converting to Islam and marrying a jihadist fighter or slavery and repeated rape.

Human Rights Watch documented that Christian women and girls were singled out for abduction while Muslims were released, with unmarried Christian women held captive longer.

Some were subjected to forced conversion and marriage to Muslim men, or were murdered. Amnesty International documented one survivor who was raped repeatedly, sometimes by groups of up to six fighters.

The abduction of children follows the same pattern. On the night of April 14–15, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.

As of a September 2025 UN CEDAW inquiry, 91 Chibok girls remain in captivity or their fate is unknown, with many confirmed to have been forced to marry fighters and give birth in captivity.

In 2018, Boko Haram abducted 110 girls from a school in Dapchi, Yobe State. All were eventually released except Leah Sharibu, the only Christian among them, held back after refusing to convert to Islam.

Eight years later, Sharibu remains in captivity, her condition described as harsh and degrading. ISWAP threatened to kill her or keep her as a slave for life.

Reports indicate she has been forcibly married to an ISWAP commander and gave birth to a second child in 2020 and a third in 2023. UNICEF reported that since 2013, more than 1,000 children had been abducted by Boko Haram alone in northeastern Nigeria.

Between April 2014 and December 2022, approximately 70 attacks on schools occurred, with more than 1,680 students abducted, over 180 children killed, 90 injured, and more than 90 still missing.

Between January 2023 and November 2025, Nigeria recorded 22 more verified attacks on educational institutions, with 816 additional students kidnapped, bringing the total since Chibok to approximately 2,496 students abducted across 92 school attacks.

On November 21, 2025, armed bandits stormed St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, abducting 303 children and 12 teachers, some as young as 10. All were released by December 22, 2025, though whether ransom was paid was not publicly confirmed.

According to SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis has generated 2.56 billion naira, approximately $1.66 million, in confirmed ransom payments, with 4,722 civilians abducted in a single year. UNICEF reports that one in three Nigerian children is not in school, a figure the abduction crisis has worsened.

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Murphy’s Law is an adage that basically stipulates “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Soon-to-be former Rep. Eric Swalwell has been living that adage out this week, seeing his once-promising political career hit about six feet below rock bottom.

The progressive Californian both withdrew his nomination for California governor and announced his resignation from Congress this week after a deluge of allegations accusing Swalwell of sexually assaulting young female staffers.

Of note, Swalwell is married and has three children.

But while Swalwell has largely retreated from the public eye — presumably to work on his marriage in private — the public isn’t quite as done with him as he is with them.

In fact, in keeping with the theme of “when it rains, it pours,” gasoline has just been poured on one of those allegations that has torpedoed Swalwell’s career.

According to NBC News, a woman named Lonna Drewes came forward with some disturbingly graphic allegations against Swalwell.

“He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness,” Drewes said during a Tuesday news conference.

She added, “I thought I died.”

Drewes claimed that Swalwell offered to help connect her to people who could aid with her software company. In fact, the first two meetings with Swalwell were perfectly pleasant and friendly, before the catastrophic encounter in a West Hollywood hotel.

An attorney for Swalwell has vehemently denied these claims.

“These accusations are false, fabricated and deeply offensive — a calculated and transparent political hit job,” Swalwell’s attorney said.

(Swalwell has hinted that he had failed his wife, but has largely denied allegations of assault or rape.)

But while Swalwell and his team are denying Drewes’ allegation, it might be a little harder to deny the paper trail that internet sleuths have dug up.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin and California Target Book Research Director Rob Pyers took to X and documented a receipt putting Swalwell at the time and place of the alleged Drewes rape.

Not much information here yet, but 2 matching transactions for campaign travel expenses at a hotel in West Hollywood in 2018…https://t.co/6S8WhZAXUC pic.twitter.com/qEZcZBYvXf

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 14, 2026

NEW: The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says the alleged rape of Lonna Drewes by Eric Swalwell took place in July 2018 in the 900 block of Hammond Street. This comes back to the Montrose Hotel. Campaign finance expert @rpyers has flagged a travel expense from Swalwell’s… pic.twitter.com/jEH19r9Ihp

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 15, 2026

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says the alleged rape of Lonna Drewes by Eric Swalwell took place in July 2018 in the 900 block of Hammond Street,” Melugin posted to X on Tuesday.

He then provided the critical context: “This comes back to the Montrose Hotel. Campaign finance expert [Rob Pyers] has flagged a travel expense from Swalwell’s campaign at the time, with FEC records showing ‘Swalwell for Congress’ spent $361 in travel expenses at the Montrose Hotel on July 18th, 2018.”

Swalwell has repeatedly denied claims of sexual assault and abuse, and has not been charged with any crimes as of yet.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Swalwell’s Campaign Paid for Room at Hotel Where He Allegedly Raped Lonna Drewes – Same Timeframe, Same Address appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The donor list for Eric Swalwell’s now dead campaign for governor of California is a virtual who’s who of liberal Hollywood.

Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Jon Cryer, Kathy Griffin and many others poured tons of cash into Swalwell’s coffers and yet now that his campaign and career have imploded under a shocking scandal, they are all silent.

Let the record show that these people apparently do not care about victims of rape and sexual assault. What other conclusion could one possibly reach?

Breitbart News reports:

Hollywood Elites Who Backed Disgraced Eric Swalwell Go Silent After His Resignation from Congress

With the now thoroughly disgraced former Congressman and California candidate Gov. Eric Swalwell resigning his seat in Congress and suspending his gubernatorial campaign, the left-wing Hollywood celebrities who were so loudly backing him have all of a sudden gone quiet.

A-listers like Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, and Jane Fonda have all gone radio silent in the wake of Swalwell’s crash and burn ending and many of his elite donors have decided not to say a word about their man’s fall from grace, the New York Post noted.

The paper points out that Sean Penn donated $15,000 to Swalwell and on several occasions met up with the California Democrat to show his support. Several others, such as Mad Men star Jon Hamm, rabid anti-Trumper Robert Di Nero, and Jon Cryer each donated $10,000 and often spoke up for Swalwell on social media and in interviews…

Disgraced comedienne Kathy Griffin also gave ten grand, as did TV producers David Bennet and Shawn Ryan, who both ponied up $10K. Before his shocking murder, film director Rob Reiner also gave the same amount to Swalwell. And Creative Artists Agency CEO Bryan Lourd topped them all by shelling out a $12,500 contribution.

The anti-Trump group ‘The Lincoln Project’ also contributed.

The Lincoln Project is among them. https://t.co/7NPorKxmLM

— Wendy Fox (@WendyRedFox) April 15, 2026

It would be different if Swalwell was still in the running and these people wanted to take a ‘wait and see’ approach to the scandal, but that it not what is happening. It’s over.

What is preventing these liberal hypocrites from speaking out?

The post WHAT CHANGED? Hollywood Elitists Who Donated Tons of Cash to Eric Swalwell’s Governor Campaign Suddenly Silent appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.