Foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi, is "closely following" the case of Italian Cathlic missionary priest Pierluigi Maccalli who was reported kidnapped in Niger overnight, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday in a statement.
"Enzo Moavero Milanesi is in constant contact with the foreign ministry’s crisis unit and with state institutions and has been closely following the kidnapping of Father Pierluigi Maccalli, a member of the Congregation of the Society of African Missions of the Diocese of Crema, ever since it was reported last night in Bomoanga, Niger," the statement said.
The foreign ministry said it was close contact with Maccalli's family "to keep them constantly updated on the situation."
The Italian embassy in Niger's capital Niamey has made a formal request to local "to give top priority to solving the case" and "avoid taking initiatives that could put Father Maccalli’s safety at risk," the statement concluded.
Rome prosecutors have opened a kidnapping and terrorism probe into Maccall's abduction, which was reported to Catholic news agency Fides on Monday by an Italian missionary priest in Niamey, Mauro Armanino.
The area has been in a state of emergency for some months due to the presence of terrorists from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, Armanino was cited as telling Fides.
Based on the testimony of an Indian priest who managed to escape, armed gunmen entered the village at 9.30 pm, seized Maccalli and took his computer and mobile phone, The Society of African Missions was cited as telling Fides.
Fides said it heard from unnamed SAM sources that the priest was "probably taken across the border" to Burkina Faso where jihadist groups have set up bases in a vast forested area.
Maccalli's mission was in the Gourmance area near the Burkina Faso border, about 125 kilometres from Niamey.
Maccalli organised meetings against local practices like circumcision and female genital mutilation and this "may be one of the reasons for the kidnapping, according to local sources," Fides said.
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