Extremists have killed a Christian priest weeks after abducting him in northeastern Nigeria, the country’s presidency said Tuesday, January 21.

Reverend Lawan Andimi, a local leader in the Christian Association of Nigeria, was abducted by gunmen affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group at the beginning of January in the state of Adamawa.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement called the killing “cruel, inhuman and deliberately provocative” and insisted those responsible “would pay a heavy price for their actions”.

“President Buhari expressed sorrow that the terrorists went on to kill the religious leader while giving signals at the same time of a willingness to set him free by releasing him to a third party,” the presidency said.

The killing of Andimi is the latest high-profile targeting of Christians by the IS terrorists. IS had earlier released a video of the detained priest in their captivity.

Last month, IS claimed the killing of 11 Christians abducted in northeastern Borno state, the epicentre of a decade-long jihadist insurgency.

Amnesty International condemned the latest murder and called on the authorities to “re-double their efforts to rescue the hundreds of civilians still detained” by the Islamists.

“Since December last year, Boko Haram has been escalating attacks on civilians, commuters, infrastructure and humanitarian facilities across northeast,” the rights group said.

The conflict in northeast Nigeria has killed over 36,000 people, displaced some 2 million people from their homes and spilled into neighbouring countries.

The jihadists have splintered into rival factions, with one group loyal to long-time Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and the other pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group.