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Persecution Report: Hostility to Christians grows in India, Africa, and Beyond

As India engaged in a six-week national election last year and targeted persecution was increasing, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the U.S. State Department add India to its list of worst violators of religious freedom. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected, but he and his Hindu-nationalist party continue to persecute Muslims and other non-Hindu faiths, including Christians.

The commission’s report pointed to violent clashes in India’s northeastern Manipur state, where over 500 churches and two synagogues have been destroyed. Additionally, accusations of India’s involvement in assassination attempts on foreign soil have surfaced.

“Essentially what India is saying is, if you’re not a Hindu, you’re really not an Indian citizen,” Commissioner David Curry told WORLD News. “And they are doing any number of things which are making it difficult for people to practice their faith.”

The report also calls for other countries, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, and Vietnam, to be designated as countries of particular concern, with specific emphasis on Nigeria’s poor religious freedom conditions and Azerbaijan’s targeting of ethnic Armenians. Based on these findings, the commission is urging stronger actions and sanctions against these violators to uphold international religious freedom standards.

They are not the only group documenting these rising trends. According to the latest edition of the Global Persecution Index (GPI), released in January 2025, India, the African Sahel, and Nicaragua—a predominantly Catholic and Protestant nation in Latin America—are among the latest hot spots for Christian persecution worldwide.

The GPI report was compiled by the nonprofit International Christian Concern, which is based in Washington, D.C. It states that 300 million Christians worldwide currently face persecution for their faith from governments, terrorist groups, and society. It also points to rising Hindu nationalism in India where politicians are stripping religious minorities of rights by instituting anti-conversion laws, promoting the country as a Hindu state, and promoting legislation to limit religious expression. These shifts have emboldened radicalized mobs to attack both Christians and Muslims.

In Africa, Islamic terrorist groups have increased violent attacks and killings targeting Christians across the continent. The threat is especially bad throughout the Sahel region that lies between the Muslim-majority north and the Christian-majority south. Extremist groups like Boko Haram have attacked Christians throughout northern Nigeria, southeast Niger, Cameroon, and Chad. In Mali, terrorist groups ramped up operations after UN peacekeepers began withdrawing in 2023.

Last January in Nigeria, thousands of Christians participated in a peaceful march for change after deadly attacks over the Christmas season killed more than 200 people. Commissioner Eric Ueland has criticized the State Department for failing to recognize Nigeria as one of the worst religious freedom violators for the past three years. He acknowledged that American authorities have recognized the role of non-state actors like the Boko Haram terror group.

“However that designation does not account for the imprisonments and mob violence, for alleged blasphemy, the mass killings, including killings of many Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, and the consistent failure of the Nigerian government to prevent or punish widespread violence impacting religious freedom in Nigeria,” Ueland said.

In Nicaragua, Christian freedom has deteriorated dramatically under an increasingly hostile government. President Daniel Ortega’s administration has arrested numerous Roman Catholic priests on inflated charges, and in August the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior canceled the legal status of more than 1,500 churches and nonprofits, including Catholic, evangelical, and Pentecostal groups. Nicaraguan officials also revoked tax exemptions from churches, requiring them to pay income taxes on congregants’ tithes and offerings. The human rights group Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más says more than 200 religious individuals have been exiled in recent years.

While persecution is rising in various places, the ICC report emphasized that the gospel is still spreading. Iran hosts one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world, and churches in Indonesia are growing despite heightened restrictions there.

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