Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwid

26 May 2026

The Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem continues her efforts to bear a behove witness and denounce injustices by reporting the latest cases of anti-Christian persecution emerging from Africa, Asia and the Caucasus. The blood of the faithful in Christ continues to be shed amid widespread silence, while the rest of the world looks away.

Nigeria

On 15 May, armed militants stormed three schools in Oriire County, Oyo State, along the Ahoro-Esinele–Yawota axis near Ogbomoso, abducting seven teachers and numerous students. Michael Oyedokun, a maths teacher of Christian faith, who was abducted during the attack, was beheaded, and the video of the execution was circulated online in the following days.

On the evening of 23 May, armed gangs attacked a prayer vigil held by the Ijo Ajaye Ati Igbala church in the Ori-Oke Ajaiye area of Ekiti County, Kwara State, on the outskirts of the village of Ekerin. Pastor Adebayo Abiodun was leading the night prayers with his congregation when the attackers opened fire, killing three Christians and abducting fifteen others taking them away to an unknown destination.

Congo

On 19 May, terrorists from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are affiliated with the Islamic State, massacred seventeen Christians in the territory of Mambasa in the Ituri Province. The attack began in the village of Alima and spread to nearby communities, particularly Manyama, where many houses were set on fire. Many people are missing, and the attackers continue to move freely in the region. Meanwhile, the scourge of Ebola is exacerbating an already tragic situation.

China

On or around 19 May, the Chinese Communist Party authorities demolished the Yazhong Church in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province – a region historically known as the ‘Jerusalem of China’. Under a strict information blackout, the building was razed floor by floor by heavy machinery operating behind security checkpoints. The demolition recalls that of the Sanjiang Church in 2014, but today marks an unprecedented escalation in the crackdown on Chinese house churches.

Indonesia

On 17 May, around midday, as the faithful were gathered in prayer in the courtyard of the Chapel of Saint Paul in Mbamogo – the parish of Saint Michael Bilogai in the Intan Jaya district, Central Papua province – following the conclusion of the Holy Mass, a device, described by witnesses as a grenade dropped from a drone, fell from above and exploded. Four faithful sustained serious injuries. The parish priest, Father Yanuarius Yance Yogi, denounced the incident as the latest episode in a pattern of violence that has plagued Papua for sixty years amid the silence of the international community.

Pakistan

On 15 May, Shahzad Masih, a Christian father of two and the sole breadwinner of his family, was shot in the head and killed in the Ghulam Muhammad Abad neighbourhood of Faisalabad. In the days before his death, he had already been the target of an attack by the same assailants, in a climate of mounting intolerance fuelled by blasphemy laws which primarily target members of the Christian minority.

Uganda

Reports have recently emerged of a barbaric attack on Kalegeya Faruku, a forty-year-old man from eastern Uganda who converted to Christianity in March of this year. After returning briefly to his father’s house in the Jinja district to collect some personal belongings before seeking refuge in a safe location, he was ambushed there by his Muslim “brothers” who, reciting verses from the Quran, severed both his hands with a machete and left him dying on a roadside. His father, Lubega Issa, claimed responsibility for the attack, declaring to those present: “This is what Sharia requires us to do to those who renounce the religion of Allah”.

Azerbaijan

Satellite images released on 19 May confirmed that the Azerbaijani authorities had demolished two Armenian churches in Stepanakert, the capital of occupied Artsakh: the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God, the region’s main Christian church, which was consecrated in 2019, and the Church of St James. The destruction is part of a systematic campaign to erase the Armenian Christian heritage, following the forced exodus of over 120,000 Christian Armenians from their ancestral homeland. Armenia, evangelised by the apostles St Jude Thaddeus and St Bartholomew, is historically recognised as the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion.

India

On 10 May, militants belonging to the Hindu nationalist organisation Hindu Jagran Manch stormed several Christian churches in the neighborhoods of Kamal Vihar, Sen Chowk Shriram Nagar, Ambedkar Chowk Depot Para Sorid, and Tikrapara in the city of Dhamtari during Sunday services. The militants demanded the pastors to produce identification, declaring the services to be “illegal” branding them as healing meetings intended for conversion. This action was taken under the state’s new anti-conversion law, which came into effect on 7 April and carries penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment. Extremist Hindu groups immediately weaponised this legislation as a legal tool to legitimise violence, intimidation, and arrests targeting Christian minorities.

In the days following the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem entrusts to the Holy Spirit – the Consoler – the souls and hearts of those persecuted in Christ, with Christ and for Christ. They all bear witness to the Spirit of Truth, who grants them true consolation and ensures eternal condemnation for their oppressors.

“When the Advocate comes,
whom I shall send to you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father,
he will be my witness.
And you too will be witnesses,
because you have been with me from the outset”
(Jn 15:26-27)