A terrorist group based in Nigeria has kidnapped a Catholic priest who previously served in Alaska, according to the Diocese of Fairbanks.
The diocese announced last week that Boko Haram reported capturing the Rev. Alphonsus Afina on June 1.
On Thursday, the Catholic faith-based Fides News Agency reported that religious officials in Nigeria were able to speak with Afina on the phone after his capture and said he was in good health at the time of the call.
Afina, who's from Nigeria, came to Alaska with Rev. Aiden Yakubu in 2017 on religious worker visas, said Fairbanks Diocese Vicar General Robert Fath.
Fath described Afina as welcoming, friendly and open. He said Afina and Yakubu have both shared stories about their prior encounters with Boko Haram.
"They had experienced personally, prior to being here, attempts on their lives. They had seen churches burned, family and friends that were kidnapped and killed," Fath said.
Boko Haram is a jihadist militant group founded in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in 2002. The group aims to create an Islamic state in the country, enacting Sharia law and eliminating Western influence.
Before returning to Nigeria, Afina spent six and half years serving in Fairbanks and villages in western Alaska. And Fath said he also pursued a counseling degree while he was here.
"His bishop asked him to return to Nigeria this past Spring – in April of 2024 – in order to help form a crisis center for victims of the Boko Haram," he said.
Support for Afina has poured in over the past week. Fath said a service to pray for Afina's safe return was organized Tuesday at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Fairbanks and drew 200 people, and more online.
In a Thursday statement, Fairbanks Bishop Steven Maekawa called for continued prayer, saying in part, "Let us call upon the Spirit of God to strengthen, protect and deliver Father Alphonsus and all who are in captivity."
In 2013, the U.S. Department of State designated Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization. Estimates of how many people the group has displaced since its founding vary, ranging from around 2 million to 4 million.
The group has been responsible for numerous deadly attacks over the last two decades, sometimes killing hundreds at a time, according to the United Nations Security Council.
That list includes 2012 bombings in Nigeria that killed 180 people in one day and the notorious 2014 abduction of about 300 girls from a school in Nigeria, which was followed by an attack that killed people organizing to rescue them.
In more recent years, internal divisions splintered Boko Haram into two factions, according to the International Crisis Group, with one more focused on military targets and the other often targeting civilians. Fath said he's unsure which of the factions is responsible for Afina's kidnapping.
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