Nigeria, Rwanda, China, Mozambique, and Mexico Are the Top Persecutors of Christians: GCR Red List
The organization Global Christian Relief (GCR) has published its annual report for 2026, titled Red List, revealing the top 5 worst countries for Christian persecution across five categories of concern: most arrests & sentences, assaults & abductions, killings, displacements, and destruction of buildings.
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New this year is the accompanying prayer guide, which shows exactly how you can pray for the concerns and believers in each country.
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Nigeria leads in the category of killings, with 590 documented and verified killings (as recorded in the Violent Incidents Database) November 2023 to October 2025, according to GCR, out of the total number of 1,972 killings in the top five countries in the category. Following Nigeria are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 447 killings, Ethiopia with 177 killings, Russia with 167 killings, and Mozambique with 94.
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US President Donald Trump added Nigeria to the US State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2025, guilty of egregious and unchecked religious persecution, based on the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.
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Rwanda leads the top five countries in the category of violence and intimidation against churches, with GCR citing 7,700 such incidents in the country in the two-year reporting period. Restrictive regulations in the country led to thousands of church closures, GCR says. Joining Rwanda in the category are Mozambique with 1,382; Myanmar with 1,042; Nicaragua with 1,023, and Ukraine with 678.
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China tops the category of arrests and detentions, with 709 incidents tabulated, followed by Russia with 323, Iran with 149, Vietnam with 116 and Nicaragua with 114, for a total of 2,183.
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At least 21,101 Christians were displaced in the two-year period, led by Mozambique with 13,298; Myanmar with 2,285; Nigeria with 2,001; India with 1,134, and Mexico with 875, driven variously by insurgency, civil conflict, communal violence and criminal governance.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Global Persecution of Christians Surges in 2024 ]
Mexico tops the list of assaults or abductions with 376 incidents, followed by Nigeria with 354, India with 288, Ethiopia with 183, and Myanmar with 161, out of the total of 3,018 incidents.
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The GCR Prayer Guide: Praying Through the 2026 Red List suggests the following prayers for Nigeria:
- Pray for God’s protection over villages, pastors, and congregations and for attacks to be prevented
before they begin. - Pray for comfort and provision for grieving families and displaced believers and for real accountability
so perpetrators are stopped and justice is pursued.
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