Christians in Africa face worrying rise in killings, persecution and displacement

According to one group Christians are being persecuted, killed and displaced in 28 of Africa’s 54 countries. Nigeria is one country that has seen a massive rise in attacks against the faithful.

"Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on earth to be a Christian," Ryan Brown, Open Doors US CEO, told Fox News Digital. "Of the nearly 5,000 Christians killed for their faith in 2023 worldwide, a staggering 82% of them were in Nigeria." Paul Tilsley is a veteran correspondent who has reported on African affairs for more than three decades from Johannesburg, South Africa. He can be followed on Twitter @paultilsley

The Nigerian research group Intersociety, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, calls the killing of Nigeria’s Christians genocide and puts the death toll higher, claiming over 8,000 Nigerian Christians were killed or abducted from January 2023 to the end of January 2024. Most of them were reportedly savagely hacked to death with knives. Intersociety says over 18,500 places of Christian worship were destroyed across Nigeria from 2009-2023.