Christians face death, persecution, displacement across Africa in 2025

– JOHANNESBURG: Millions of Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) spend Christmas under reported threats of persecution, kidnapping, sexual violence and, in some cases, death from Islamist militants; He viewed Friday’s U.S. strikes against Islamic State militants in Nigeria as a real sign that President Trump is serious about his efforts to stop the killing of Christians in Africa.

It is estimated that more than 16 million Christians across the region have been displaced and torn from their homes. This week’s alleged release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren in Nigeria has done little to ease fears as many across the continent try to worship at Christmas.

But this year, Fox News Digital has highlighted the disaster in Africa multiple times. That has led to spotlights on the violence by senior members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and most recently by President Donald Trump, who has threatened to send U.S. troops “with firearms” into Nigeria, the worst-hit country, to stop the killings of Christians.

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There are reportedly few signs of improvement so far in Africa this Christmas. “The militant Islamist offensive across SSA is a disaster of global proportions unfolding before us,” Henrietta Blyth, chief executive of Open Doors UK and Ireland, told Fox News Digital this week.

Open Doors is a global Christian charity supporting Christians who are persecuted for their faith.

“The past year has seen a steady stream of reports from sub-Saharan Africa, including reports of militant Islamist groups brutally attacking defenseless Christian communities, among others,” Blyth continued.

“As Open Doors, we are sounding the alarm through our Rise to Africa campaign. We have prayed over and over for the terror campaign to reach public awareness.”

“There is no sign of this abating in 2025,” says Open Doors’ Blyth, referring to speeches, articles and posts against the violence and violence against Nigeria and the thousands of Christians reported to be killed there every year.

South African Chief Rabbi Dr. “The global outrage and lack of action on this issue is a moral disgrace,” Warren Goldstein told Fox News Digital. He added: “Black lives seem to matter nothing, even if they are killed by Islamists in Africa. The persecution of Christians in Africa needs to be seen in a global context. It is part of a multi-continental war of jihad against ‘infidels’ (Jews and Christians) and Western values.”

He continued: “This is a world war in which Israel is the epicenter of fire from the jihadist forces of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and others. The Islamist war against Christians in Africa is another front in this world war, stretching from Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the south.”

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Fox News Digital highlighted where oppression will hit hardest in Africa in 2025:

NIGERIA

The continent’s most populous country has seen the worst persecution in Africa in 2025, according to Open Doors; There have been ‘endless stories of deadly attacks and kidnappings’ in Nigeria’s north and the Middle Belt; Villages were burned, citizens were raped, kidnapped, shot and beheaded.

In June this year, Pope Leo

Christians hold banners as they march through the streets of Abuja during prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria on March 1, 2020 in Abuja. – Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops gathered believers, as well as other Christians and other people, to pray for safety and condemn the barbaric killings of Christians by Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant kidnappings for ransom in Nigeria. (Photo: KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe’s Diocese of Makurdi in north-central Nigeria is made up almost entirely of Christians. But sustained and escalating attacks by Islamist Fulani militants led him to testify at a congressional hearing in Washington in March. When he returned to Nigeria, he was threatened and about 20 members of his congregation were killed.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)

A screenshot shows villagers examining the damage left by jihadist terrorists who killed 49 Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in late July. (Open Doors)

War-torn country 95% Despite being Christians, believers are targeted by jihadists. In February, Islamic State-linked terrorists from the so-called ADF group, which wants the eastern part of the country to become a Muslim caliphate, rounded up 70 Christians and reportedly beheaded them in a church. At least in September 89 Christians were reportedly massacred by jihadists at a funeral and in surrounding fields.

SUDAN

Sudan’s estimated 2 million Christians make up an estimated 4% of the country’s population.

Like the rest of the Sudanese people, they face chronic food shortages and the horrors of years of war. But Christians allegedly also face discrimination and persecution on both sides of the conflict.

After the Evangelical church in Omdurman was bombed, even though it was not in a war zone or used by warring forces. (Open Doors)

A senior Sudanese church leader told Fox News Digital that in the Darfur city of El Fasher, “Christians are now eating animal feed and grass. No wheat, no rice, nothing can come in.”

CAMEROON

Civil conflict and weak governance have allowed armed militants to step into the law and order vacuum, Open Doors reported. In the far north, Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province regularly attack, kill, kidnap and destroy villages in night raids. Thousands of people fled their homes for displacement camps.

Villager Ali said, “It never ends. I want it to end, but it doesn’t. We have to sleep in the mountains for security.”

MOZAMBIQUE

There is a Christian population in Mozambique, located in the southwest of the continent. 55%. The Islamic State of Mozambique is causing mayhem in the far north by targeting Christian communities, burning their churches and destroying their homes. Murders have increased this year, with thousands of people fleeing their homes to join more than 100 others. 1.3 million people who have already been displaced.

Christian villages were targeted in Mozambique (Middle East Media Research Institute)

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In a mass attack on the village of Napala in October, Open Doors reported that militants killed 20 Christians and displaced nearly 2,000 people. A local priest described how four elderly sisters were tied and burned to death inside a house.

Commenting on the airstrikes in Nigeria, Open Doors’ Henrietta Blyth told Fox News Digital: “A military operation like this will not bring any quick solution to decades of violence. The Nigerian government must seek lasting solutions that guarantee peace, the protection of civilians, and religious freedom for all.”

Chief Rabbi Goldstein concluded: “The West can win this war only if it can find the moral clarity to call it by its name and see all battlefields as part of the same struggle.”