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.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Nigeria Is Deadliest Country for Christians: GCR Red List 2025 ]
New this year is the accompanying prayer guide, which shows exactly how you can pray for the concerns and believers in each country.
[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS ]
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.
[ Bookmark the SemperVerus CHURCH SECURITY INTELLIGENCE CLIPBOARD ]
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.
