The most persecuted population in the world continues to be those of the Christian faith, where more than 380 million followers of Jesus Christ face intense levels of hostility. In 2024, Open Doors International, an organization that assigns countries a persecution score based on compiled data, reported that 4,476 people were killed for faith-related reasons, 7,679 churches and faith-based buildings were attacked, and 4,744 individuals were imprisoned. In 2025, they found that violence against Christians is increasing.
Nigerian Crisis
Open Doors International reports that violence and authoritarian restrictions against Christians have risen notably in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 2025 reporting period where there are seven of the 10 deadliest countries for Christians. Of those, Nigeria is now ranked as number 7 on the 2025 World Watch List (WWL); the WWL is Open Doors’ annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. Though fewer Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria compared to the previous reporting year, it remains disproportionately deadly for Christians, with 3,100 paying the ultimate price for their faith.
In late 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly warned that the U.S. could take military action in Nigeria if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.” He also said the U.S. would halt all aid and assistance to Nigeria if the violence persists, and directed the Pentagon to prepare options for possible action. In addition, members of the U.S. Congress, including leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have publicly supported U.S. pressure on Nigeria to address violence against Christians and have discussed strengthening U.S. policy tools to hold Nigeria accountable.
Last June, more than 200 Christians were brutally massacred in the village of Yelewata in central Nigeria—and daily killings continue unabated despite President Bula Tinubu’s orders to “crush terrorists responsible for the attacks.”
In a recent CBN News interview, Nigerian lawyer and Yelewata native Barr Franc Utoo, passionately shared, “The way they kill our people is in the most horrific, the most gruesome, the most cruel manner anyone could ever think. They will [light a] fire on the house, and then, when you are coming out, they will now hack you down with a machete. So, they cut you as if they’re cutting a piece of wood, not even as if they are killing a wild animal. You don’t even kill a wild animal that way.”
Barr Utoo pointed out that the jihadists will chant “Allahu Akbar” while slaughtering their victims. He states that his own government turns their heads, wanting to be “politically correct because the kinsmen of these people are the same people who constitute the top echelon of the Nigerian political structure, business structure, and institutional structure.”
In the early morning hours on July 15, over 30 armed Islamic terrorists stormed the community of Bidi Jebu in the Nigerian Plateau State. Davou Musa, pastor of a 300-member congregation, lost nine members of his family who were burned alive in the attack. He stated, “They kicked the door down and marched in, shooting and shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is greatest). Then they set fire on the building and started shouting, saying they had conquered.” A total of 27 people, including a three-month-old baby and three-year-old toddler, were murdered.
Masara Kim, a reporter for Truth Nigeria, shared on CBN News on July 16, that more than 30 terrorists had swarmed the compound, broke into homes, pouring gasoline on sleeping victims, and setting them on fire.
“He [Pastor Musa] could literally hear them screaming [at the top] of their voices and shouting for help,” Masara relayed. “But definitely no one came to their help until they could no longer scream. They could no longer breathe. When I got to that compound at sunrise yesterday, the bodies of these victims were still smoking.”
He stated that this is a pattern of violence, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in the last 10 months in the Plateau State alone.
Syrian Crisis
Although Syria ranked 18th on Open Doors’ World Watch List, since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the Alawite (previously associated with the Assad regime), Christian, and Druze communities have faced increasingly violent attacks, displacement, and massacres under Syria’s new interim Islamist leader President Ahmed al-Sharaa. He is more widely known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List from 2013 through 2024.
While the Syrian Christian and Druze communities existed long before the rise of Islam in the country, the Islamic regime views their theological differences as a crime worthy of death. Last week, over 1,000 civilians in Syria’s southern region of Suwayda were killed in clashes between Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes and Druze sects, displacing more than 130,000 people.
The weekend of July 19, Pastor Khalid Mezher, who led the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda, and 20 family members were victims of a targeted massacre. Pastor Mezher had converted from the Druze faith to Christianity several years ago, and despite rising tensions, continued to serve his city and congregation. The remaining Christians in Suwayda are now scattered, cut off from food, water, electricity, and the internet.
Israeli Druze activist Mansor Ashkar explained that this is an ethnic cleansing by the Syrian government. In a recent interview, he revealed, “They made a fatwa which allows all the foreign fighters if they join the fight to go and take Druze women, also Christians if they’re in that mountain, as loot of war, as sex slaves. And now we’re having more Bedouin tribes and Muslim tribes accompanied by the government soldiers who are flocking into that mountain to butcher and kill anyone alive—Christian and Druze.”
Those speaking out against these atrocities are concerned over the lack of coverage by prominent news sources and attention from political leaders around the world. Some have attributed the removal of nations, such as Nigeria, from the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria as global measures that would have otherwise kept pressure on entities that severely violate international religious freedom.
As many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are persecuted, driven underground, and even martyred for a faith that some take for granted, continue to pray that the joy of the Lord is their strength, that they would continue to shine their light to the lost even under such intense pressure, and that peace would come to their land. As the Lord leads, prayerfully seek to support organizations that have “boots on the ground” ministering to the persecuted Church and advocate for those who have no voice whether through social media platforms, your local church, or governmental agencies.
