Even in majority-Christian nations in Africa and Latin America, Islamic jihadis, criminal cartels, and dictatorial governments continue to create a crisis of persecution.
Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Nigeria are all majority Christian populations, and yet in all of these countries, Christians have to fear deprivation of rights, political targeting, violence, and even martyrdom. International Christian Concern (ICC) brought attention to the issue on June 20.
Islam is one of the two ideologies most responsible for Christian persecution in the world, along with Communism. Islamic jihad is certainly wreaking havoc in the DRC:
In the DRC, Christians represent roughly 95% of the nation’s population, yet they are being slaughtered at alarming rates. Much of the killing is being done by Islamist groups like ISIS-DRC, also known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and ISCAP, a militant group of the Islamic State group.
One hopes that this is a crisis that Donald Trump can address when representatives from the DRC sign the new treaty in D.C. that Trump has orchestrated between the DRC and Rwanda. The European Parliament announced earlier this year regarding the DRC that the “Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing a total of 698 African Christians,” while “ISCAP claimed responsibility for killing 639 Christians.” Yet many Christian leaders, including the pope, seem only to care about the jihad-loving Gazans.
Related: Trump Announces Rwanda-Congo Peace Treaty
Nigerian Christians face the bloodiest persecution against Christians in the entire world, as the decades-long genocide by Islamists continues to escalate. While Christians currently represent about half of the country’s population, according to ICC, the massacres that have left tens of thousands dead in recent years continue to occur.
“These attacks are shockingly brutal in nature,” Open Doors soberly stated. “Many believers are killed, particularly men, while women are often kidnapped and targeted for sexual violence. These militants also destroy homes, churches, and livelihoods.”
Nigerian Christian Michael Ajah says an Islamist Fulani militia murdered 20 of his family members in Yelwata village in Benue State 4 days ago
The Islamist militia murdered more than 200 Christians in the village. World media barely wrote a word about it pic.twitter.com/sj8bhLYEn1
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 18, 2025
This is why Trump needs to restore Nigeria — removed by Biden — to the countries of particular concern list.
Likewise, according to the U.S. State Department, in Mozambique, about 62% of the population is composed of Christians, yet Islamic extremists still target them for their faith. According to Open Doors, these extremists have “target[ed] Christian places of worship, abducting religious leaders and killing numerous believers.”
Unfortunately, Latin American nations also suffer from anti-Christian persecution. Cuba is estimated to be about 60% practicing Catholics — the Communist government makes it difficult to get truly accurate numbers — but Cuban churches critical of the government’s human rights abuses can find themselves targeted.
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Churches in the country can be randomly and arbitrarily shut down by the government, ICC added.
Similarly, Christians in Mexico account for 88% of the population, according to the 2020 census. Yet, they fear violence and intimidation from local cartels who extort churches and commit attacks of violence against Christ followers for speaking against their activities. According to Teresa Flores, director of the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Latin America (OLIRE), cartels sometimes view churches as a source of financial opportunity…
In Nicaragua, 81% of the population consists of Christians, but in recent years, Christ followers have come under harsh attacks from the socialist regime. Nicaraguan authorities are increasingly imprisoning or exiling Christians who speak out against the government due to dictatorial paranoia.
Christian persecution is a global scourge. Instead of constantly sending aid to Gaza, where the majority of people support terrorism, Western nations should start acknowledging the Christians so desperately in need in Latin America, and most especially in Africa.
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