Insecurity in Nigeria: Concerns as Terrorists Kidnap, Kill 106 Health Workers – Report
- A new international report recorded 101 violent incidents against Nigerian healthcare facilities between 2023 and 2025, with attacks reaching a three-year high in 2025
- Armed groups, criminal bandits, and jihadist forces kidnapped 91 health workers during the period, with 25 victims still unaccounted for at the time the report was compiled
- Violence spread from 12 to 16 states in 2025, with attacks in Zamfara state nearly tripling compared to the previous year
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over four years of experience covering security issues and counterinsurgency in Nigeria and across Africa.
Gusau, Zamfara state - Armed groups, criminal kidnappers, and jihadist fighters abducted 91 health workers and killed 15 others across 101 separate attacks on Nigerian healthcare facilities between 2023 and 2025, according to a new international report.
As reported by The Punch, the figures come from the 'Care in the Crosshairs: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2025' report, published on Friday, July 17, 2026, by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. The data was compiled using Insecurity Insight's global monitoring system and covers incidents across the three-year window.
Source: Facebook
Insecurity in Nigeria: The scale of attacks
Violence escalated sharply each year. In 2023, there were 24 incidents, with 24 workers kidnapped and six killed. That rose to 34 incidents in 2024, with 35 abducted and three killed. By 2025, the number climbed to 43 incidents, a 79 per cent increase from 2023, with 32 workers abducted and six killed. Kidnapping incidents alone rose by more than 70 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024.
Of the 91 workers abducted over the full period, 25 remain unaccounted for. Only 10 were confirmed released. One doctor, shot and seized in late December 2025 and freed in January 2026, was subsequently shot again and killed shortly after his release.
The report noted that 95 per cent of health worker kidnappings in 2025 occurred outside Nigeria's north-east, concentrated instead in the north-west and north-central zones where ransom kidnapping is common. Victims included doctors, surgeons, pharmacy owners, and drivers, seized from hospitals, clinics, road ambushes, and illegal checkpoints. In some cases, armed groups abducted health staff specifically to treat their own wounded fighters.
Insecurity in Nigeria: Violence spreads
In 2025, attacks were recorded across 16 states, up from 12 in 2024. New cases emerged in Anambra, Adamawa, Kano, Ondo, Edo, and Nasarawa. Incidents in Zamfara state nearly tripled compared to 2024, with displacement affecting over 74,648 people in the region between December 2025 and May 2026.
The report attributed most incidents to unidentified gunmen, while also naming specific actors. ISWAP was linked to five attacks in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states, mostly targeting facilities for their medical supplies and food. Boko Haram ambushed an ambulance in Borno, injuring the driver and taking the vehicle. Militia groups in Katsina were connected to attacks in which workers were killed and injured, and Zamfara militia carried out a road abduction.
Source: Twitter
Three workers were killed in hospital shootings in Edo and Katsina, among them a physiotherapist killed when gunmen stormed the University of Benin Teaching Hospital in Benin City. The attack prompted a protest by staff at the facility.
In Kaduna state, attackers raided a nursing and maternity centre, abducting a health worker, a security guard, and five patients, including a nine-month pregnant woman and a nursing mother with her infant.
The report also flagged the withdrawal of United States funding as a compounding crisis, noting that Nigeria received roughly $8 billion from USAID for health programmes between 2022 and 2024. The 2025 funding freeze led the coalition to estimate that approximately 28,000 health workers lost their jobs. Nigeria's 2026 budget allocated an additional $200 million to the health sector to offset part of the loss.
Read more on insecurity in Nigeria
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- List of killed Imams and mosques attacked by bandits that led to significant loss of lives
DSS seeks death penalty for Ansaru terrorists
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the Department of State Services (DSS) said it will challenge the life sentences imposed on two senior commanders of the Ansaru terrorist group by a federal high court in Abuja.
A senior DSS official, speaking after the judgement, disclosed that the secret police is seriously considering the punishment inadequate, given the gravity of the offences.
The DSS official said the agency's decision to challenge the sentences is rooted in the fate of two teachers killed during the Oriire ordeal. The abductors brutally killed the teachers in what the official described as a calculated move to force the government's hand.
Source: Legit.ng
