A local convent said on Monday that four Catholic nuns were abducted on a highway in Nigeria’s oil-producing Imo state in the southeast. The nuns were on their way to church to attend mass.

The Sisters of Jesus the Savior said in a statement that the nuns were kidnapped on Sunday in the Okigwe-Umulolo area.

“We implore for intense prayer for their quick and safe release,” the statement said.

The order’s website says its sisters “portray the compassionate Jesus in their actions whereby they profess the 3 Evangelical Counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.”

In the northwest, Nigeria’s military has started an air offensive to eliminate the armed groups responsible for kidnapping citizens from villages and towns in the region.

Some information for this story came from Reuters.
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