(ZENIT News / London, 05.14.2025).- A new global report has placed Africa — and particularly Nigeria — at the epicenter of modern-day persecution against Christians, painting a harrowing portrait of violence, displacement, and state inaction. According to the «2025 Red List» published by Global Christian Relief (GCR), more than 10,000 Christians were murdered across the continent between November 2022 and 2024, primarily by Islamist extremist groups operating with near impunity.
The report, compiled using data from the Violent Incidents Database of the International Institute for Religious Freedom, breaks persecution into five categories: killings, attacks on property, arrests, displacements, and abductions. Nigeria, it says, remains the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian.
In the northern Nigerian states governed by Islamic sharia law, violence against Christians is rampant and systematic. Small rural Christian villages, isolated in vast semi-arid terrain, have become soft targets for heavily armed groups like Boko Haram, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP), and armed Fulani herdsmen. Despite repeated promises from the Nigerian government to restore order, the killings have escalated, exposing a grim reality: promises do not equal protection.
But Nigeria is far from alone. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, and Ethiopia follow closely on the list of countries where faith in Christ has become a deadly liability.
In the DRC, 390 Christian deaths were linked to the Allied Democratic Forces, a group affiliated with the Islamic State. Mozambique, once a relatively peaceful Christian-majority country, has seen its northern regions descend into chaos, with 262 deaths attributed to Islamic State militants there. Even Ethiopia, long considered a cradle of early Christianity, has been rocked by violence, with at least 181 believers killed — many of them converts from Islam.
What makes this wave of persecution particularly alarming is its multidimensional nature. Beyond the mounting death tolls, African Christians are also facing mass displacement, forced conversions, kidnappings, and the destruction of their churches and homes. In many cases, these attacks go underreported or ignored by local authorities.
Despite the bleak statistics, the report also spotlights stories of extraordinary resilience. “In the face of terrifying odds, the Church endures,” said Brian Orme, interim CEO of Global Christian Relief. “We are witnessing not just survival, but spiritual defiance. People continue to choose Christ, fully aware of the cost.”
GCR says it is responding by expanding its network of underground safehouses, emergency relief teams, and trauma counselors across the continent — an effort it describes as both humanitarian and spiritual.
Meanwhile, outside Africa, other forms of persecution dominate. India, where tensions between Hindus and Christians have been rising, topped the chart for attacks on Christian property. Nearly 5,000 incidents were recorded during the report’s time frame, with a dramatic spike in May 2024 during sectarian violence in the northeastern state of Manipur. There, mobs aligned with Meitei Hindu extremists torched hundreds of Christian churches and homes belonging to the largely Christian Kuki tribe.
In China, persecution has taken a different — yet no less repressive — form. The GCR report names the country as the global leader in Christian arrests, citing more than 1,500 detentions in the past two years. With advanced surveillance systems and tight state control over religion, China continues to pressure underground churches and intimidate religious leaders into silence.
“China’s persecution is systemic and bureaucratic,” the report notes. “It’s a cold, calculated effort to erase unregulated expressions of faith from public life.”
As persecution adapts to different cultural and political environments — from open violence in Nigeria to digital surveillance in China — the need for international attention becomes ever more urgent.
And yet, in the midst of this global crisis, the underlying thread in the GCR’s report isn’t just suffering — it’s stubborn hope.
“These believers are not retreating,” said Orme. “They’re rebuilding. In the ashes of burned churches, under the threat of jail, or in camps for the displaced, their faith is not extinguished. It’s being refined.”
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