Italy: Nigerian Christian refugee killed in racist attack

Church and civil officials in Italy deplored the murder of Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi, a Nigerian Christian refugee who has lived in Fermo for ten months.


Nnamdi, 36, fled Nigeria with a 24-year-old woman after the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram attacked his village’s church. His parents and a sibling, according to media reports, perished in the attack.


After making a harrowing journey through Niger, Libya, and across the Mediterranean Sea—a journey in which, according to Vatican Radio, they experienced robbery, physical violence, and the miscarriage of their child—Nnamdi and the woman found shelter in a diocesan seminary. Father Vinicio Albanesi, who oversaw their care, celebrated their marriage.


Nnamdi was beaten with a road sign in a racist attack, and his wife was beaten as well but survived.
“The government today is in Fermo with Father Vinicio and local institutions in memory of Emmanuel,” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on July 7.