How Christians Are Suffering Extreme Persecution Around the World

At least seventy Christians were beheaded in a church in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this month, according to Open Doors, which monitors the persecution of Christians around the world.

An Islamist group linked to Islamic State called the AFD is feared to have beheaded the victims with machetes in the province of North Kivu, highlighting the violence against Christians in some parts of the globe.

Several American conservative figures, including anti-abortion activity Lila Rose, posted their concern about the tragedy online. But the attack is the tip of the iceberg, according to Open Doors, as the DRC ranks 35th in its watch list of countries where Christians face danger.

Where Is Christian Persecution Happening?

More than 380 million Christians around the world are facing persecution and discrimination for their faith, according to Open Doors’ World Watch List.

This includes “Christians facing a lack of legal recognition or protection due to their faith” and “Christians who suffer persecution or discrimination in the context of displacement, often caused by violent conflict.”

“The numbers are difficult to fully comprehend because they represent real people, not just statistics, Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern (ICC) told Newsweek.

Henrietta Blyth, the CEO of Open Doors U.K. and Ireland, told Newsweek: “The persecution of Christians around the world is one of the great untold scandals of the 21st Century.

“It can take many forms: in North Korea, it may be a summary public execution without trial, merely for owning a Bible. In Eritrea, it can be 10 years spent in a blazing hot prison cell made from a metal shipping container, merely for belonging to an unregistered house church.”

She went on: “Often persecution has a far less dramatic but equally insidious face designed to squeeze faith out rather than smash it to smithereens. In China, state-approved churches are made to submit their sermons to Communist Party officials for state approval. Elsewhere if you convert to Christianity, it can be something as simple and devastating as rejection by your nearest and dearest, or being thrown out of your job.”

North Korea

North Korea is ranked Number One on Open Doors’ World Watch List. While there are state-sponsored churches in Pyongyang, Open Doors calls these “show churches for propaganda purposes” as “any manifestation of religious beliefs is prohibited.”

Indeed, North Korea’s Law on the Elimination of Reactionary Thought and Culture, introduced in 2020 to help eliminate foreign influence, strictly forbids the Bible.

Other religious texts, such as the Quran, would likely be banned under the law as well, but Christianity is specifically targeted as it played a major role in Korea before the war and division, and it is seen as a Western influence.

There are an estimated 300,000 and 500,000 Christians in North Korea, who have to meet in complete secrecy if they do. If discovered, Christians face being forced into a political prison camp, hard labor or execution. The North Korean government has long denied the existence of political prison camps.

Open Doors cites the case study of Jung Jik, who said his father was “tortured” when interrogators knew he had become a Christian.

Speaking about his own escape and recapture, Jung Jik said: “Of course, the inspectors beat me to get a confession, but I wasn’t tortured as harshly as my father because I wasn’t a Christian.”

Newsweek has contacted the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea via the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, via email, for comment.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Multiple sub-Saharan African countries are high on Open Door’s watch list, classified as places where there are “extreme levels of persecution” or “very high levels of persecution.”

Places of “particular concern” include Nigeria and Burkina Faso, where there are many cases of extremist violence against Christians, and Sudan where Christian communities have been left exposed by the ongoing civil war.

In northern Nigeria, the terrorist group Boko Haram has been carrying out focused attacks on Christians, according to Open Door’s watch list and the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point.

In a 2012 report, the CTC says: “Boko Haram’s renewed focus on Christians is a departure from its previous operations, which targeted Christians more at random and did not appear to be a priority for the group.”

Open Doors cited several Boko Haram attacks on a village in Yobe State, where a church was burnt down and its pastor shot dead.

It quotes one person, Salamatu, whose husband and neighbors were killed in the attacks, and who said people were denied aid because they were Christian.

“Everyone received coupons to collect food,” Salamatu said, “but when they discovered we were Christians, we didn’t receive the coupon.”

Newsweek has contacted the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, via email, and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, via online contact form, for comment.

Meanwhile, in Sudan, the entire country is reeling from the ongoing civil war that broke out in 2023—between Sudan’s official army and an alliance of militias. With more than 7.7 million people internally displaced in the country as of mid-2024, this is the largest displacement crisis in the world.

Open Doors has recorded an increase “in the number of Christians killed and sexually assaulted, as well as the number of Christian homes and businesses attacked.”

The “compounded pressure” on Christians is often a result of racism toward those of indigenous African descent, rather than Arab ethnicity.

Newsweek has contacted the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan in Washington, D.C., via email, for comment.

Middle East

“Christian communities are vanishing across the Middle East,” King said.

Iran is ranked number nine on Open Door’s World Watch List, where “Persian-speaking Iranian Christians are seen as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam” or as part of a “Zionist cult,” the report says.

While Armenian and Assyrian Christians are recognized by the state of Iran, they are “treated as second-class citizens,” Open Doors says.

The report cites the arrest of Christians for distributing Bibles and a case study in which “Fatemeh” told the story of her church being raided by police, with some “made to sign documents saying they would never engage in Christian activity again.”

Last November, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that expressed “serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief” in Iran.

Newsweek has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office in Geneva, via email, for comment.

Meanwhile, in Yemen, which is listed as number three on the Open Doors Watch List, more than 4.5 million people have become internally displaced, with 21.6 million people left in need of humanitarian aid.

The Christian community in Yemen is “subject to systematic violations of freedom of religion or belief, including threats, detention, torture and death” from multiple sources including family members, tribal leaders, government authorities, Houthi rebels and terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh, Open Doors says.

The report also alleges that there are “discriminatory practices in aid distribution” ongoing, especially in regions controlled by the Houthi rebel group.

Case study “Zahra” said: When you convert, especially as a woman, you are looked at as someone who has sold herself to this ‘other world,’ It is extremely difficult to face society. If you make a decision to ‘follow Jesus’, your family will most likely confine you inside the house—basically a permanent imprisonment. This is mainly because of the family’s honor.”

Newsweek has contacted the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office in Yemen, via email, for comment.

Is Christian Persecution Reported?

King believes that the persecution of Christians receives “disproportionately little coverage or international response” compared with other human rights crises.

He said: “Christianity’s historical association with Western power makes it difficult for many to conceptualize Christians as victims rather than agents of oppression. This narrative persists despite the fact that most persecuted Christians live in the Global South, not the West.”

But Blyth said she does not believe there is necessarily a systemic anti-Christian bias, but rather that it “can be hard work to break the surface of the news pond” amid all the other international crises—such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

On top of this, when these attacks against Christians are taking place “in a remote village in central Africa,” “you have to work hard to convince news editors that our sources are trustworthy, that the attack definitely happened, and that people need to know,” Blyth said.

King said: “The persecution of Christians isn’t merely a religious issue—it’s a human rights crisis affecting millions.”

Blyth agreed when she added: “You can be sure that if a government is limiting peoples’ freedom to worship as they wish, many other freedoms—thought, self-expression, public assembly, to name just three—are going the same way.”