New report reveals widening violence across 16 states, with kidnappings, killings, and raids crippling healthcare delivery nationwide

Nigeria’s already strained healthcare system is under mounting threat, as a new international report reveals that 106 health workers were either kidnapped or killed between 2023 and 2025 amid escalating violence across the country.

The report, Care in the Crosshairs: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2025, published by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, paints a troubling picture of growing insecurity targeting hospitals, clinics, and medical personnel.

According to the findings, at least 91 health workers were abducted while 15 lost their lives in 101 separate incidents over the three-year period. Alarmingly, 25 of those kidnapped remain missing, with their whereabouts still unknown.

The data shows a steady rise in attacks, peaking in 2025 with 43 incidents — nearly double the figures recorded in 2023. The violence has also spread geographically, expanding from 12 states in 2024 to 16 states in 2025, with new cases reported in Anambra, Adamawa, Kano, Ondo, Edo, and Nasarawa.

Zamfara State emerged as one of the worst-hit areas, where attacks nearly tripled within a year, forcing more than 74,000 people to flee their homes between late 2025 and mid-2026.

The report highlights a disturbing shift in the pattern of attacks. While Nigeria’s northeast has long been associated with insurgency, about 95 per cent of health worker kidnappings in 2025 occurred outside the region, particularly in the northwest and north-central zones where kidnapping for ransom is rampant.

Victims ranged from doctors and surgeons to pharmacists and ambulance drivers, many of whom were seized from hospitals, ambushed on roads, or abducted at illegal checkpoints. In some cases, captors demanded ransom; in others, medical workers were forced to treat injured fighters.

One particularly tragic case involved a doctor who was shot and abducted in December 2025, released weeks later, and then killed in a second attack shortly after returning to work.

Hospitals themselves have not been spared. Armed groups reportedly raided facilities, looted medicines, and set buildings ablaze in several states. In Edo and Katsina, gunmen stormed hospitals, killing health workers on duty. The killing of a physiotherapist at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital sparked protests among staff.

In Kaduna, attackers abducted a health worker alongside patients, including a heavily pregnant woman and a nursing mother with her infant, during a raid on a maternity centre.

The report attributes the violence to a mix of actors, including bandits, militias, extremist groups such as ISWAP, and, in some instances, security forces. Some health workers were reportedly arrested by authorities over alleged links to armed groups, while one was killed during an airstrike targeting militants.

Beyond the immediate human toll, the crisis is compounding deeper challenges in Nigeria’s health sector. The report notes that the 2025 suspension of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) led to the loss of an estimated 28,000 health jobs, further weakening an already fragile system.

With attacks rising, funding shrinking, and medical workers increasingly at risk, experts warn that access to healthcare in many parts of Nigeria could deteriorate even further if urgent steps are not taken to protect frontline personnel.