Christians worldwide face persecution of all types, including imprisonment, torture and assassination. Christians are suffering more than any other group, experiencing persecution in 166 countries — the most ever recorded.
INTERNATIONAL Christian Concern has released its annual report, the Global Persecution Index.
The 2025 report contains in-depth analysis as well as personal stories of Christians enduring persecution, and offers ways readers can support them. ICC President Jeff King says: “Approximately 300 million Christians worldwide face persecution of all types, including imprisonment, torture and assassination.” The report highlights Nicaragua, India, the DRC and Nigeria as countries where there has been a dramatic decrease in security for believers. It is free to download at www.persecution.org
Meanwhile, according to the Pew Research Centre, global persecution has never been greater. The Centre concludes that attacks on religious groups occurred in a record-breaking 192 countries and territories in 2022. Government policies and changes in the attitudes of society are the main causes.
Christians are suffering more than any other group, experiencing persecution in 166 countries — the most ever recorded.
PAKISTAN: Christians shot on Christmas Day
Three Christians were wounded in a gun attack at the house of a pastor on 25 December, leaving one church member in a serious condition. On Christmas Eve Pastor Shahzad Siddique had tried to stop a group of Muslims from harassing his guests. The next day over a dozen gunmen arrived and shot at Christians meeting outside his home in Lahore’s Maryam Colony.
Pastor Siddique called the police, who arrived within 25 minutes, and just as he was explaining the incident to them, “youths riding motorcycles came there and opened indiscriminate fire on us. Unfortunately, three people – my uncle, driver and a church member – received bullet injuries on the arm, stomach, and leg. We were able to catch one attacker while the others fled on foot.”
Siddique says police have arrested five suspects and are searching for the others. He told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News: “I’ve always preached peace and tolerance, but this unprovoked attack has shown that extremist elements do not want a peaceful society.”
(Photo, Arif Masih, one of the Christians wounded in the attack, in hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Credit: International Morning Star News)
UGANDA: Three Christians burned to death and one stabbed
Boxing Day in eastern Uganda saw three members of a family killed by Muslim extremists. The family, a couple and their adult son, had only converted from Islam in November. According to Morning Star News, Kaiga Muhammad, 64, his wife Sawuya Kaiga and their son Swagga Amuza Kaiga, 26, became Christians after members of a local church visited them. They also asked for prayer for the son, who had malaria, and the pastor says he was immediately healed.
The family, who lived in Budini Nyanza, Kaliro town, kept their faith secret for fear of persecution. However, local Muslims spotted the father, Muhammad, leaving a church in a nearby village, and after being confronted he admitted his conversion. He was given one week to renounce his faith.
On 26 December, local Muslims set the family home on fire and all three were burned beyond recognition. Two Muslims have been arrested on charges of arson and murder.
It has also been reported that Islamic extremists killed a Christian father of three who fled his home in Bulangira in eastern Uganda due to death threats from Muslim relatives. James Mukenye Habiibu’s body was found on 17 December. A local resident witnessed the murder, saying he heard people speaking in Arabic as they stabbed someone who was crying out to Jesus.
(Photo – The home where three Christians were burned to death in Uganda. Credit: Morning Star News)
NIGERIA: Christmas marked by massacres
Nigeria has a long history of attacks coinciding with Easter and Christmas. This year Fulani herdsmen carried out two attacks over Christmas 2024 that resulted in nearly 50 deaths. On 22 December, 15 Christians in a village in Plateau State were killed, including a one-year-old baby and a 13-year-old child, according to Christian Daily International and Morning Star News. Then, on Christmas Day itself, 33 people were massacred in five predominantly Christian villages in Kwande County in Benue State.
Anwase village resident Udeti Gira said: “The brutal assault by Fulani herdsmen terrorists has left the community in shock and mourning. The people of Kwande are still waiting for a decisive response from the government to address the escalating insecurity in the area.” The governor of Benue State, Rev Hyacinth Alia, issued a statement confirming the unprovoked attacks and promised: “I can assure you the perpetrators of this act will pay dearly for it.”
The other attack in Plateau State followed a Christmas carol service at the Evangelical Church Winning All, about 22 miles from the capital, Jos. According to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List, Nigeria remains the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for their faith from October 2022 to September 2023.
(Photo – The Central mosque in Jos, Nigeria. Credit: Morning Star News)
SUDAN: Militants beat up Christians at prayer
People at a church prayer meeting in the town of Al Hasaheisa in Sudan’s Al Jazirah state were assaulted on 30 December and 14 were seriously injured.
The attack was by members of the Islamist paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been at war with the equally Islamist Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023.
Church Secretary Joseph Suliman told Morning Star News (MSN) that the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) members were praying and fasting for an end to the conflict in Sudan. Apparently the RSF suspected the Christians of supporting the SAF.
According to MSN, it is estimated that RSF militants have forced out the residents of 400 villages and partially emptied another 115 in the eastern part of the state alone.
(Photo – the location of Jazirah State, Sudan. Credit: Creative Commons)