Christian persecution has worsened in more than half of the countries studied, according to a new global report.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity, published Persecuted and Forgotten? on Tuesday, 27 October. It covers 18 countries of key concern, from Nicaragua to Burma (Myanmar). It found conditions deteriorated in 10 of them over the past two years, including China, Nigeria and Pakistan.
The charity says millions of Christians have been forced from their homes by conflict, extremism and religiously motivated violence. At least one million Christians have been displaced in Nigeria, where terrorist groups in the north have targeted churches, clergy and Christian villages.
John Pontifex, ACN UK’s Head of Press and Public Affairs, told Premier Christian News: “Christians are often despised, often because they’re perceived as being associated with the West, so they become a proxy target. You can’t attack the West, so you attack the next best thing, which is Christians. Those Christians in those countries have no political affiliation whatsoever.”
In Burkina Faso, militant Islamist groups are said to hold at least 40% of the country’s land, and in one diocese alone 2,000 people reportedly fled within twelve months.
In Syria, the Christian population is reported to have fallen by more than 80% since 2011, and senior church leaders have warned of an existential threat.
The report also calls sub-Saharan Africa one of the most dangerous regions in the world to be a Christian, with six of the ten highest-ranked countries in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index on the continent.
“Earlier we would look to the Middle East as the epicentre of militant Islamic extremism, what we called ‘hyper extremism’, but now extremism has really taken hold in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.”
The report also details state repression in Iran, China and Nicaragua, and highlights North Korea as a particularly extreme case.
This is the tenth edition of the report, first published in 2006. ACN says persecution has become a largely hidden factor driving whole communities from their homes, changing the religious make-up of entire regions, especially in Africa.
The charity is encouraging people to sign its Article 18 petition, urging the UN and the UK government to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief and calling for it to be made a foreign policy priority.
“Very often people feel powerless. As we say, it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.