Italian Priest Kidnapped in Nigerian Italian Catholic priest who was working as a missionary in Niger Republic has been kidnapped, a Vatican news agency reported on Tuesday.
Father Pierluigi Maccalli of the Society of African Missions (SMA) was abducted overnight, Agenzia Fides reported, quoting another Catholic priest based in Niger, Father Mauro Armanino.
Maccalli organised meetings against local practices like circumcision and female genital mutilation, and this “may be one of the reasons for the kidnapping, according to local sources,’’ Fides said.
A Niger government spokesman, Abdourahamane Zakaria, confirmed the kidnapping of an Italian near the border with Burkina Faso.
The Niger Defence Ministry added that the abductee was a priest.
Maccalli was based in the Bomoanga parish in the Niamey diocese, Fides said.