JOHANNESBURG: Millions of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), who spend Christmas under the reported threat of persecution, kidnapping, sexual violence and in some cases death at the hands of Islamist militants, saw the US attacks on Islamic State militants in Nigeria on Friday as a real sign that President Trump is serious in his efforts to stop the killing of African Christians.
It is estimated that more than 16 million Christians in the region have been displaced and uprooted from their homes. The alleged release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren in Nigeria this week has done little to ease the fear many on the continent try to worship at Christmas.
Lawmakers sound alarm over ‘deadliest place on earth to be Christian’ as violence escalates in NIGERIA
Open Doors is a global Christian charity supporting Christians persecuted for their faith.
Blyth continued: “Over the past year there has been a non-stop flow of reports from sub-Saharan Africa, including reports of militant Islamist groups brutally attacking defenseless Christian communities, among other things.”
“At Open Doors, we have raised the alarm through our Arise Africa campaign. We have repeatedly prayed that the terror campaign will reach public consciousness.”
Referring to Nigeria and the thousands of Christians said to be killed there every year and the speeches, articles and messages against the violence, Open Doors’ Blyth says: “There is no sign of this abating in 2025.”
Members of St. Leo Catholic Church hold a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on April 13, 2025. (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)
He continued: “It is a world war, with Israel at the epicenter of the fire of the jihadi forces of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and others. The Islamist war against Christians in Africa is another front of this world war that stretches from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south.”
TRUMP ADMIN ADDRESS ANTICHRIST VIOLENCE WITH NEW VISA CRACKDOWN POLICY AFTER ATTACKS IN NIGERIA
NIGERIA
According to Open Doors, the continent’s most populous country saw the worst persecution in Africa in 2025, with “non-stop stories of deadly attacks and kidnappings” in Nigeria’s northern and middle belt – a litany of villages torched, civilians raped, kidnapped, shot and beheaded.
Pope Leo
Christians hold placards as they march through the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. – The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered the faithful as well as other Christians and other people to pray for safety and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)
Bishop Wilfred Anagbe’s diocese of Makurdi in north-central Nigeria is almost exclusively Christian. But continued and escalating attacks by Islamist Fulani militants prompted him to testify at a congressional hearing in Washington in March. Back in Nigeria, he was threatened and about twenty of his parishioners were murdered.
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
A screenshot shows villagers inspecting the damage left by jihadist terrorists who killed 49 Christians in DR Congo in late July. (Opened doors)
The war-torn country is 95% Christian, yet its believers are targeted by jihadists. In February, terrorists linked to Islamic State from the so-called ADF group, who want the eastern part of the country to become a Muslim caliphate, rounded up 70 Christians and reportedly beheaded them – in a church. In September, at least 89 Christians were reportedly massacred by jihadists at a funeral and in surrounding fields.
SUDAN
Sudan’s estimated two million Christians make up an estimated 4% of the country’s population.
Like the rest of the population of Sudan, they are confronted with chronic food shortages and the horrors of years of war. But Christians are also said to have been singled out for discrimination and persecution by both sides in the conflict.
The Evangelical church in Omdurman was bombed even though it was not in a combat zone or used by combatant forces. (Opened doors)
CAMEROON
Civil conflict and weak governance have allowed armed militants to step into the vacuum of law and order, Open Doors reports. In the far north, Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province regularly raid villages in night raids, killing, kidnapping and destroying them. Thousands of people have fled their homes and gone to displacement camps.
Ali, a villager, said: ‘It never ends. I want it to end, but it doesn’t. For safety we have to sleep in the mountains.’
MOZAMBIQUE
Mozambique, located in the southwest of the continent, has a Christian population of 55%. Islamic State Mozambique is wreaking havoc in the far north, targeting Christian communities, burning their churches and destroying homes. Murders have increased this year and thousands more are fleeing their homes, joining the more than 1.3 million people already displaced.
Christian villages targeted in Mozambique (Middle East Media Research Institute)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
In a mass attack on the village of Napala in October, Open Doors reported that militants killed 20 Christians and displaced about 2,000 people. A local pastor described how four elderly sisters were tied up and burned in a house.
Chief Rabbi Goldstein concluded, “The West can only win this war if it can find the moral clarity to call it by its name and see all theaters of war as part of the same struggle.”
