More than 365 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith, according to the Open Doors World Watch List 2024.
The top ten countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution are North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Except for North Korea, where the persecution is caused by “dictatorial paranoia” and “communist and post-communist oppression,” the main religion of all other countries and groups on the list is Islam. According to Open Doors:
“Being discovered to be a Christian in North Korea is effectively a death sentence. Either believers will be deported to labour camps as political criminals, where they face a life of hard labor which few survive, or they are killed on the spot. The same fate awaits family members. There are believed to be tens of thousands of Christians held in labor camps across the country.
“It’s impossible for Christians to live freely in North Korea. Meeting for worship is almost impossible and must be done in utmost secrecy, and at grave risk. In May 2023, five members of a family were arrested as they gathered for prayer and Bible study. Christian literature was also confiscated.”
Somalia, where Christians face extreme persecution, has been going through a civil war since 1991. As Freedom House reports:
“Somalia has struggled to reestablish a functioning state since the collapse of an authoritarian regime in 1991. Limited, indirect elections brought a federal government to power in 2012… The government’s territorial control is also contested by a separatist government in Somaliland and by the Shabaab, an Islamist militant group. No direct national elections have been held to date, and political affairs remain dominated by clan divisions. Amid ongoing insecurity, human rights abuses by both state and nonstate actors occur regularly.”
Continue here: Gatestone Institute
