2024-01-18 03:57:00
Time.news – I am over 365 millioni (5 million more than last year) i Christians in the world who undergo a high level of persecution for their faith, 317 million if we consider only the 50 countries in which the level of persecution is extreme. The data emerges from the World Watch List 2024 report by the NGO Open Doors, which denounces the increase in persecution of Christians, never so intense in 30 years.
Il phenomenon affects one in 7 Christians, which becomes one in 5 in Africa and 2 in 5 in Asia. The dossier underlines that, in absolute terms, one is maintained impressive acceleration of persecutions in last ten years. The report collects the analyzes of approximately four thousand people, including local networks, researchers and external experts and examines “historic churches”, communities of expatriates or immigrants and those converted to Christianity.
The period taken into consideration runs from October 2022 to September 2023. Out of one hundred countries monitored, 78 have a level of persecution considered at least “high”, while those at an “extreme” level have gone from 11 to 13 in one year. The first in the rankings it is, as always since 2002, the North Koreawhere is impossible to live the Christian faith. They follow Somalia, Libya, Eritrea e Yemen. Countries where, we read in the report, “the Christian faith must be lived in secret and, if discovered, Christians – especially converted ones – risk death”.
In sixth place is the Nigeriawhich holds the record number of Christians killed due to jihadist violence. They are 4,118 out of the 4,998 total in the world – the second is the Democratic Republic of the Congoor with 261. This is one of the few absolute numbers decreasing compared to last year, when Christians killed were 5,621. According to Open Doors, the decline is due to the months preceding the elections in Nigeria, a period in which the massacres stopped and then started again after the vote.
In the African country there was also the highest number of kidnappings of Christians, 3,300 out of 3,906 globally, but in general it is the entire Sahel area that is particularly difficult due to Islamist groups. The Pakistan – consistently among the top ten nations where the life of Christians is most difficult – is in seventh place and second for violence against Christians. He rises to eighth place from tenth Sudanfollowed by‘Iran.
Tenth place forAfghanistan, where violence against Christians has decreased after the persecutions of previous years which led many communities to flee. “The lives of Christians are no longer safe”, he reads, “but the Taliban have simply stopped looking for them”. L’India – eleventh in the ranking – is the state with the highest number of Christians arrested – 2,332 out of 4,125, followed by Eritrea (400), Cuba (75) and Nicaragua (60).
Among the new countries where persecution has reached an “extreme” level are Syria and Saudi Arabia. Among the other data that have emerged globally there are also 14,766 attacks on Churches and places of worship while there are tens of thousands of personal attacks and attacks on economic activities. The Open Doors NGO also states that it is difficult to collect reliable data on the number of victims of rape and abuse due to faith: in many countries reports are rare, for cultural and social reasons.
However, a minimum starting figure, according to estimates cross-referenced with testimonies collected, is 2,622 (there were 2,126 last year), to which over 609 forced marriages are added. These are the tip of a much more impressive iceberg. Domestic vulnerability specifically affects minority women and children. In Nigeria, sexual violence is used as a weapon to terrorize Christian communities, as well as in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. But abuses have also been recorded in Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and India.
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