Christian News

As Haiti reels under years of gang-led terror, chronic violent political instability, and poverty, a group of Christian ministers led by Kenya’s first lady Rachel Ruto recently participated in a “marathon” prayer event seeking God’s help for the Caribbean nation and asking His protection for the 2,500 multinational police force Kenya is now leading to support Haitian police.

A Muslim man in Sudan severely beat his wife after she refused to renounce her newly found faith in Christ, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

A Christian mother who converted from Islam in Uganda is believed to have been murdered by her Muslim son after she refused to renounce Christ, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Christianity is legal in Uganda but former Muslims who accept Christ are highly vulnerable to extreme violence by Islamic relatives who do not accept their conversion.

As the civil war in Sudan reaches exceedingly catastrophic proportions, a church leader in war-torn Sudan was ambushed and temporarily detained by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

Known as a country where 50% of the population say they do not believe in God, France saw a record 12,135 baptisms this Easter, America Magazine reports. The French Bishops Conference said in a new report that 7,135 adults and more than 5,000 children aged 11-17 were baptized during Easter services this year.

Australian police say Monday’s stabbing attack at a Sydney church in which a bishop, priest, and churchgoers were injured during mass was a “terrorist act.”

On the 10th anniversary of the abduction by Boko Haram Islamic terrorists of 276 mostly Christian school girls in Chibok village, in northeastern Nigeria, 91 of the abductees remain missing, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

In two separate attacks by Muslim extremists in Uganda last month, an evangelist was murdered and a mother and her child were burned with boiling water, Morning Star News reports. Christianity is legal in Uganda, but believers have come under continually increasing violent attack by Islamists.

The International Christian Concern (ICC) aid and advocacy organization reported last week that its staff recently witnessed an attack on Christians in Chhattisgarh state in which Hindu extremists drove a community of 50 farmers and their families off their land. 

Aid workers warned Friday that millions of Christians in Zimbabwe face starvation after the government declared a state of disaster and issued a hunger alert as thousands of malnourished people have already died in the drought-stricken African nation.

Amid an ongoing systematic crackdown on Christians in China, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has threatened evangelical church leaders in Guangdong Province with prison and seizure of property for printing devotional materials, Christian Daily reports.

Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have violently persecuted Ukrainian Christians by torturing them and removing them from their positions, a group of church leaders and rights advocates have told United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.

Christians across Africa are increasingly subject to deadly violence at the hands of Islamic terrorists and, on Apr. 9, suspected Al-Shabaab members murdered two Christians and wounded others in two attacks in Lamu West, Kenya, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

Christians in Vietnam now face new hurdles in planting churches as the government has issued Decree 95, a law which requires religious groups to submit financial records and allows officials to close down religious activities for unspecified “serious violations,” Christianity Today reports.

A Christian rights watchdog organization reports that Christians in Kosovo have been experiencing widespread persecution, Christian Daily reports. A small southeastern European country which separated from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo has a 93% Muslim population; just 6% of the population is Christian.

The United Church of Christ in Nigeria (UCCN) says one hostage died when suspected Islamic gunmen, known as “bandits,” released more than 50 church members after four months of captivity.

A Belarusian preacher, Syarhey Melyanets, has still not been released from jail in Belarus after being sentenced to 13 days’ imprisonment on unspecified charges, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports.

The world’s largest Baptist denomination, the US Southern Baptist Convention, lost a record 1,200 congregations in 2022, a new study by Lifeway Research shows. The data for 2022 is the latest available; a report for 2023 will be published soon, Lifeway said.

As part of President Daniel Ortega’s long-term crackdown on religious leaders, authorities in Nicaragua have now convicted 11 Protestant pastors on apparently trumped-up money laundering charges, sentencing them to jail sentences of 12-15 years in prison and an $80 million fine each. 

The family of a 20-year-old Christian who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in Pakistan are being threatened that they too will be killed unless they drop their charges against the murderer, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.