Nearly 2K Christians killed, 3K abducted or assaulted in past 2 years: watchdog

Africa remains epicenter of martyrdom

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, January 13, 2026

A U.S.-based nonprofit watchdog organization dedicated to tracking global Christian persecution released its latest findings last week, documenting nearly 3,000 verified abductions or assaults and close to 2,000 killings of Christians due to worldwide faith-based violence over the past two years.

The 2026 Global Christian Relief Red List, which was released Jan. 8 after being compiled by a team of persecution experts, found that from Nov. 1, 2023, to Oct. 31, 2025, there were at least 1,972 verified Christian murders in the world related to religious violence.

The list relies on information provided by the Violent Incidents Database, which was launched last year and is maintained by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), serving as an events-based resource that logs reported cases of religious freedom violations worldwide.

Three of the top five deadliest countries for Christians were in Africa, which remains the epicenter of systemic violence against them because of groups affiliated with the transnational jihadist Islamic State. Noting that religious violence is driven for different reasons depending on the country, the report found that all of them share the presence of the Islamic State, weak state protection and a lack of accountability for perpetrators.

Nigeria emerged as the deadliest country, with 590 documented killings, though the report noted that the documented figures do not necessarily reflect the full scale of the violence in the African nation, where religious identity is often underreported, many regions are inaccessible, and many incidents cannot be independently verified.

While the violence spilling into Nigeria's Middle Belt region from extremist groups in the north is multifaceted and also afflicts Muslims, field investigators with Global Christian Relief who visited the country found "repeated, coordinated attacks on Christian populations in which pastors and churches were deliberately targeted, and survivors reported being attacked explicitly because of their faith," according to the report.

The investigators discerned that "the cumulative impact on Christian communities [in Nigeria] — through targeted attacks on leaders, places of worship and homes — reflects sustained persecution rather than isolated criminal activity."

The report cited the Rev. Yakubu Muton, a Nigerian pastor who described the night that Fulani militants murdered nine people in his rectory while his wife hid in the bathroom and he hid with his goats.

"We were hearing their noise, hearing their cries before they killed them. And they killed them. They cut them to pieces. They burned them," he said.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia followed close behind Nigeria, with 447 and 177 killings, respectively. Russia, which also has Islamic State-affiliated cells, was the fourth-deadliest, with 167 killings.

Mozambique, which continues to suffer an ongoing insurgency from Islamic State-Mozambique (ISM) militants, was fifth, with 94 killings; it was also the country where the most Christians were forced to flee because of their faith, with 13,298 verified incidents of displacement.

Rwanda was the country where Christians experienced the most violence and intimidation against churches, with 7,700 incidents that included preventing Christians from worshiping together, often through restrictive government-ordered church closures under the guise of "infrastructure compliance."

Mozambique, Myanmar and Nicaragua followed Rwanda in such incidents. Ukraine featured fifth, where many churches have been destroyed amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

The report also documented intensifying non-lethal persecution in countries such as China, where the Chinese Communist Party increasingly spies on Christians and asserts state control over religion.

China bore the distinction of arresting the most Christians, with 709 verified arrests, which the report called "a leading example of extensive religious control enforced through registration requirements, surveillance, and mandatory alignment with state ideology."

Russia, Iran, Vietnam and Nicaragua followed China in the number of Christians arrested because of their faith.

Mexico led in the number of abductions and assaults against Christians in the world, with 376 verified incidents, though such violence was typically related to criminal governance rather than religious ideology. The drug cartels that wield power in Mexico reportedly target Christian pastors, lay leaders and youth workers because their efforts at drug prevention and community organizing are seen as a threat against cartel control.

The report also highlighted an "abrupt and unmistakable" shift in tone from the United States under the Trump administration toward global Christian persecution, pinpointing Vice President JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference last February as a "watershed moment" that raised the alarm regarding the ebbing tide of religious liberty in the West.

During his speech, Vance rebuked European leaders for suppressing free speech and discriminating against Christians, condemning restrictions on public prayer and silent protest near abortion clinics in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The report also acknowledged the impact of the U.S. State Department officially updating its designation for Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" last November, a month before the U.S. military exerted military force against Islamic State militants in the country on Christmas Day.

Brian Orme, president and CEO of Global Christian Relief, said in a statement that modern persecution sometimes manifests in subtle ways.

"Persecution today does not always arrive in obvious or dramatic ways. Often it unfolds quietly, through pressure that restricts worship, through laws that narrow religious space, or through systems that steadily erode the ability of Christians to live openly as followers of Jesus," he said.

"The Global Christian Relief Red List exists to share the realities of the global Christian Church and to be a resource to those who are working together to advance religious freedom around the world. It remains critical in analyzing the drivers behind persecution as it captures the real-world effect of violence on communities whose vulnerability stems from both who Christians are and where they live."