By Eli Garcia Mendez —
In Mozambique where jihadis are setting up the next Islamic State, extremists have killed 1,000 Christians, but in Nigeria at least 1 million Christians have been displaced, according to a new study of persecution.
“What is occurring is an organized, systematic and brutal cleansing of Christians,” said Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the diocese of Makurdi in Nigeria’s middle belt.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity for the persecuted, said in its Persecuted and Forgotten? 2024-2026 report that conditions for Christians have worsened in 10 of the 18 countries and improved in none.
Though things are intensifying in northern Mozambique, the worst wide-scale mayhem occurs in sub-Saharan Desert, where such Muslim groups of the Fulanis, Boko Haram, ISWA and others range free slaughtering, committing arson, kidnaping virtually unhindered.
Abduction is a choice tactic for the Muslim extremists because they demand ransoms and get funds to buy arms and pay militants.
In November 2025, 253 children and 12 members of staff were seized from St. Mary’s Catholic School. In January 2026, 177 worshippers were kidnapped from three churches in northern Kaduna state, the report says.
The kidnapping of Christians in Nigeria got international attention in 2014 when Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok. At the time, Michelle Obama joined the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to pressure their release, an effort the then-leader of Boko Haram mocked.
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” said Abubakar Shekau. He was killed by rivals ISWAP in May 2021. To this day, 91 girls remain unaccounted for.
Solomon Ako, a 33-year-old Christian abducted when militants attacked his village in northern Nigeria. His captors beat and shackled him and other hostages after demanding that they convert to Islam.
“Every night when our kidnappers were asleep, we prayed. We prayed knowing that we were not alone,” Ako is quoted in the ACN report.
Sources: Christian Daily International, others.
