- A new report reveals that 91 health workers were abducted and 15 were killed across 101 violent incidents targeting Nigerian healthcare facilities between 2023 and 2025.
- Over 95% of the abductions in 2025 occurred outside the North-East, primarily driven by criminal banditry and profit-driven kidnappings in states like Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna.
- The persistent insecurity coincided with severe resource constraints, following the 2025 USAID funding freeze that resulted in roughly 28,000 health workers losing their jobs nationwide.
A comprehensive conflict monitoring report has revealed a disturbing surge in violence against medical personnel and facilities in Nigeria, with 91 health workers kidnapped and 15 killed between 2023 and 2025.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the data, published by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) in its Care in the Crosshairs: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2025 report, details 101 separate incidents of violence recorded across the country over the three-year period.
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According to the report, compiled using global monitoring data from Insecurity Insight, violence against healthcare workers reached a peak of 43 recorded incidents in 2025 alone, a 79 percent increase compared to 2023.
The geographic footprint of these attacks also widened significantly, expanding from 12 states in 2024 to 16 states in 2025, with new cases emerging in states such as Anambra, Adamawa, Kano, Ondo, Edo, and Nasarawa.
The breakdown of figures shows that 24 incidents were recorded in 2023, resulting in 24 kidnappings and six deaths. In 2024, incidents rose to 34, involving 35 abductions and three fatalities.
By 2025, 32 healthcare personnel were kidnapped across 21 separate abduction events, while six workers were killed in five distinct attacks.
As of the report’s release, the fates of 25 abducted health workers remain unknown, while only 10 have been officially confirmed released.
A central finding of the report highlights a geographical shift in threat dynamics. Approximately 95 percent of health worker kidnappings in 2025 took place outside Nigeria’s North-East, concentrating heavily in the North-West and North-Central regions.
In these zones, armed bandits and criminal syndicates routinely target medical professionals, including doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, and drivers, either to demand exorbitant ransoms or to force them into treating injured fighters in remote camps.
In Zamfara State, where criminal violence displaced more than 74,000 people between late 2025 and mid-2026, attacks targeting healthcare facilities nearly tripled compared to previous years.
In Kaduna State, gunmen raided a nursing and maternity centre, abducting a health worker, a security guard, and five patients, including a heavily pregnant woman and a nursing mother with her infant.
In Edo State, a physiotherapist was killed during a shooting spree inside the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, sparking widespread protests among medical personnel.
The report attributed the violence to a wide range of actors, predominantly unidentified gunmen, localized militia groups, and jihadist factions like ISWAP and Boko Haram. ISWAP was linked to five incidents in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, where health centres were raided, looted of supplies, and set ablaze.
Additionally, security agencies were noted to have occasionally detained health workers on suspicions of treating wounded insurgents.
These security threats have further crippled a health sector already reeling from severe financial shockwaves. Following the abrupt halt of USAID funding in 2025, which had previously supplied $8 billion in health support to Nigeria between 2022 and 2024, an estimated 28,000 health workers lost their jobs.
Although the Federal Government allocated an additional $200 million in the 2026 budget to cushion the sector, the combination of mass layoffs, facility closures, and persistent violence continues to severely jeopardize healthcare access for millions of Nigerians.
