Open Doors reports nearly half a billion Christians face persecution worldwide

The Christian advocacy group Open Doors says nearly 400 million Christians around the world are at risk of persecution this year.

In its 2026 World Watch List, Open Doors highlights the top 50 countries where Christians are in peril, with extreme persecution documented in North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Eritrea.

According to the Open Doors website, the World Watch List’s total number of Christians killed for their faith increased from 4,476 in its 2025 report to 4,849 in this year’s report.

The center of the violence is focused in sub-Saharan Africa. According to Open Door CEO Ryan Brown, Nigeria is the epicentre of violence against Christians. Nigerians make up 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide in 2025.

Many of the attacks were carried out by radical Islamic militants in the region, including Fulani militant attackers and Boko Haram, Open Doors says.

In June 2025, Fulani militants attacked the Christian farming community of Yelwata in Benue burning and killing 258 people, mostly women and children, the report notes.

Sudan’s civil war has also contributed to the Christian persecution crisis.

Syria has also climbed to the top 10 after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024.

“After years of relative calm following [the Islamic State’s] territorial defeat, Syria has surged back into our top 10, with violence against Christians reaching elevated levels,” Mr. Brown said in a press release. “The June attack in Damascus that killed 22 Christians shattered any illusion of safety.”

There was hope there might be respite for Christians in the region. Instead, more violence emerged, Open Doors says.

“This stark reality demands urgent attention: when state protection collapses and extremist ideology fills the void, religious minorities pay the price. The world cannot look away again,” Mr. Brown said.

Under the new leadership of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an armed Sunni Islamist group, Christians in Syria have endured suicide bombings in churches, forcing many into hiding, the report notes. Christian schools have been shut down.

Vehicles with loudspeakers patrol the streets of Damascus, urging Christians to convert. Otherwise, they are imposed a “jizya” — a tax on non-Muslims in order to purchase their safety, the report says.

According to Open Doors, the World Watch List’s annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face persecution is measured and verified during a 12-month research period ending Sept. 30, 2025.

Founded in 1955, the nonprofit organization works in more than 70 countries to protect and serve persecuted Christians by providing Bibles, life skills and work training as well as advocacy.