Almost 400 million Christians are persecuted. Why aren’t more people talking about this?

The wildfires in Los Angeles have dominated the headlines for more than a week. Around the world we have watched in horror at the speed with which huge flames have engulfed whole communities. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, often carrying only a handful of possessions. 

It feels apocalyptic, all too close to home, and everyone is talking about it. 

There is also another displacement crisis on our planet. It has affected millions of people and, instead of days, this crisis has been going on for years. And virtually nobody is talking about it. 

In my six years at Open Doors, I have been trying to wake people up to the unfolding catastrophe in Sub Saharan Africa. Islamist extremism is sweeping like wildfire across whole nations. Millions have been displaced, nearly half of them Christians. They have been threatened, killed, kidnapped, raped, robbed and terrorised. Their homes and villages have been burnt to the ground. They have swept up their children - often in the middle of the night - and fled for their lives. They too have lost everything. 

Open Doors research estimates that the number of Christians displaced by Islamist extremists in sub-Saharan Africa is comparable to the populations of London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow combined. And it barely gets a mention in the mainstream media (Premier being an honorable exception). 

This week we published news of Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List. It records a year of persecution and discrimination against Christians across the world. From this data, it ranks the nations where it’s hardest to be a Christian. 

This year’s list makes for sobering reading. It records that more than 380 million Christians around the world face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. That’s a rise of 15 million since last year and represents 1 in 7 Christians globally. When I began work at Open Doors six years ago, the number was a ’mere’ 240 million. 

What are the causes of this dramatic rise? It is easy to over-generalise, but we have noticed two key factors that play a huge part in the suffering of Christians, and indeed many others. I will call these two “control” and “chaos”. 

Control 

At Open Doors we talk about “dictatorial paranoia” as one of the drivers of religious persecution. A dictator or an authoritarian regime demands total loyalty. And for a Christian, there is always a higher authority than any Caesar. This means Christians, no matter how well behaved, are seen as a threat to the status quo. 

North Korea is a classic example of this, it remains the most dangerous country for Christians to live. The Kim dynasty have built themselves a god-like status, and allow for no other gods to threaten their supremacy. If a Christian’s faith is found out they risk summary execution in public. Failing that, they will be sent to one of North Korea’s notorious prison camps, where they are unlikely to emerge alive.  

The Kim Jong-un regime has started using the language of human rights. But be under no illusion: Christians in North Korea have no rights whatsoever. 

Meanwhile, in Central Asia, a rising tide of authoritarianism is seeing Christians being hounded by governments. This is doubly tragic, as these are the same nations that fled the authoritarian embrace of the Soviet Union three decades ago. 

Chaos  

In the midst of chaos and conflict, vulnerable people become even more vulnerable.  

Nowhere is this more marked than Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is the most violent place for Christians to live. Chronic government instability and civil conflict has created a vacuum in several nations in SSA. It is a vacuum filled by opportunistic Islamist militants who are keen to turn whole regions into Islamic caliphates, just as they did briefly in Iraq and Syria. 

Currently, eight of the top 10 deadliest places for Christians are in the region, and all but one of these is registering an increase in violence this year. Parts of Nigeria rank as perhaps the most dangerous places to be a Christian in the world. Christian communities are relentlessly targeted by Jihadist groups and militias from the Fulani people, who destroy whole villages and kill or capture those who are unable to escape. 

The vanishing church 

In some parts of the world the church seems to be disappearing altogether. How do you measure persecution when there’s no church left to persecute? It does not mean that the persecution has stopped, however. 

The enforced closure of the last four Protestant churches in Algeria means the violence and overall research score for the country has gone down. 

In Afghanistan, the church has gone so deeply underground that there are few visible expressions of Christianity for the Taliban to attack. The isolation of the church makes it very difficult to get verified accounts of the attacks that do occur. 

The good news 

However grim the stories and the statistics, this is not a tale of the death of Christianity. As I hear from persecuted Christians around the world, I learn of stories of resilience and growth. We hear believers standing strong in their faith and sharing Jesus together, despite the massive cost of doing so. 

These remarkable men and women tell me, again and again, how much it means to them that you, their brothers and sisters in Christ are praying for them. And they don’t even ask us to pray for their persecution to suddenly disappear. They ask us to pray that they will remain faithful to Christ and his calling. 

This year, as you watch, listen to or read the news, can I ask you to remember in prayer all those stories that don’t make the headlines. The stories of faith under fire across the world. And of all those who risk everything to keep that faith alive. 

Please pray: 

• Thank God for the 102 MPs that attended this week’s World Watch List launch in Parliament. Ask that they will be moved and persuaded to speak up for the plight of persecuted Christians. 
• Pray that we will be able to raise the profile of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, through our Arise Africa campaign, so that the crisis will finally garner international attention. 
• Ask for God to bless believers in nations like North Korea and Afghanistan, where they must keep their faith a secret from even their closest friends and family. Ask that they will kind find fellow Christians to support them in their faith.