Massacres, repression… More than 380 million Christians are persecuted around the world according to the NGO Portes Ouvertes

Today, more than 380 million Christians are exposed to persecution and strong discrimination because of their faith, according to the Christian NGO Portes Ouvertes. That is 1 in 7 Christians in the world. “ For the 12th consecutive year, the persecution is on the rise », deplores Guillaume Guennec, advocacy director of this NGO.

60 countries are the scene of extreme or very strong persecution

Since 2002, North Korea has remained at the top of the Global Index of Persecution of Christians. Christians do not have the right to exist in this country, the Bible remains a forbidden book. No expression of faith is tolerated. Nearly 400,000 people are secretly Christian. According to testimonies collected by Portes Ouvertes, those whose faith is discovered are executed on the spot or sent to political prison camps with their families, where they undergo forced labor and torture.

Other figures testify to the extreme violence against Christians on a global scale: 4,744 are detained compared to 4,125 the previous year. Sexual violence is on the rise: 3,123 cases recorded against 2,622 the previous year as well as forced marriages (821 cases recorded against 609 the previous year.) 54,780 Christians suffered physical or psychological abuse. More than 26,000 Christians were forced to flee their country.

Churches closed by force, looted, destroyed

Religious buildings continue to be favored targets, depriving thousands of Christians from meeting. Rwanda closed 4,000 churches in June and July 2024. In China, the time of large “house churches” not linked to official state movements will disappear. In Algeria, it is the end of freedom of association for Protestants. 47 churches of the Protestant Church of Algeria were forced to cease their activity. Its vice-president Youssef Ourahmane was also sentenced to 1 year in prison.

Africa, the new epicenter of violence

“More than in the Middle East, it is now in Africa that Christians are the most persecuted”, analyzes Guillaume Guennec. In 2025, more than 9 out of 10 Christians killed in the world will be in sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique, the terrorist group ASJW, affiliated with the Islamic State group, launched in January 2024 the anti-Christian campaign “Kill Them, Wherever You Meet Them “. In Mali, Christians are blackmailed by jihadists: they must convert to Islam, finance jihad, or face violent repression. But it is in Nigeria, “a country of thousands of martyrs”, that the persecution is increasing even more, notes the NGO. Between 2015 and 2025, 35,080 Nigerian Christians were killed because of their faith.

This country is also one of the 10 countries most affected by the phenomenon of forced population displacement. Terrorist groups Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State) kill men and kidnap women to become sex slaves. “Their main targets are Christians, pastors, churches,” says Ayuba Matawal, pastor for 32 years in the Bokkos region, Nigeria.

Invited by Portes Ouvertes this Wednesday, January 15, he is one of the main witnesses of the “Black Christmas” massacre committed by Islamist extremists. At the end of December 2023, many villages in Plateau state, in the center of the country, were attacked. The toll is heavy: “300 dead” and “10,000 Christians” displaced.

Multiple families were decimated, such as that of a pastor, whose “pregnant wife and five children, aged 8 to 22, were burned alive in their house,” relates the still traumatized Pastor Ayuba. Rampant insecurity now deprives Christian children of access to education and condemns them to extreme poverty.

Nevertheless, the NGO Portes Ouvertes notes some good news: Indonesia has left the Index and violence has decreased in Colombia, a temporary ceasefire has been in force between the guerrillas and traffickers since February 2024.