Pope Francis is asking for prayers to end the violence against Christians after two Jan. 15 attacks, both of which were deadly.

One Catholic priest was killed and another injured during an intentionally set fire at a parish in Nigeria.

“I ask all of you to join me in praying for Father Isaac Achi, of the Diocese of Minna in northern Nigeria, who was killed last Sunday in an attack on his rectory,” the pope tweeted on Jan. 18. 

Terrorists set Achi's parish, located in the village of Kafin Koro, ablaze at approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday; a Catholic News Agency (CNA) report said. Achi had been ordained in 1995 and was currently the head priest of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Nigeria's Diocese of Minna. Another priest at the rectory, Father Collins Omeh, was shot and wounded as he fled the scene. He is receiving medical care at a hospital and is reportedly responding to treatment.

Achi was not a stranger to violent attacks against the Church, a report from The Dialog said. He survived an attack in 2011 by the extremist group Boko Haram during a Christmas Mass. That assault killed 44 parishioners. Additionally, Achi was wounded by gunfire during the blessing of a child, and he also escaped a militant kidnapping. 

In other violence against Christians that was carried out the same day the priests were attacked, a group known as the Islamic State struck by detonating a bomb during a service at a Pentecostal church in the eastern Congolese town of Kasindi; another CNA report said. That attack killed at least 14 people and injured more than 60 others.

“So many Christians continue to be the target of violence,” the pontiff said in his tweet. “Let us #PrayTogether for them.”