The Bishop of Makurdi, Nathan Inyom, has been attacked by gunmen as he travelled along the Zaki-Biam Road at Kera, near Gondozua Village in Nigeria’s Benue State on Sunday. Diocesan spokesperson Terna Umah told The Nation newspaper that the bishop, his wife Becky, his Chaplain, the Revd Cletus Iorliam, and two other people with the bishop were not injured in the attack, which happened at 1.45 pm WAT (12.45 pm GMT) on Sunday. The bishop’s car, a gold-coloured Lexus SUV, was stolen in the attack.

Benue State is an area that has been beset by increasing levels of violence in recent weeks. Last month, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Moses Iorapuu, confirmed that two of its priests, Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, were killed when herdsmen stormed St Ignatius Quasi Parish in Ukpor, as they celebrated Mass.

“The attacks on the priests is an attack on everything that we ever stood for and believed in,” Father Iorapuu told The Vanguard newspaper.