Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide

18 August 2026

The Universal Christian Church of New Jerusalem publishes a roundup highlighting key reports on the persecution of Christians worldwide.

Bangladesh

On Wednesday, 12 August, in Sherpur District, following the discovery of the body of the Muslim merchant, Billal Hossain, buried near indigenous Garo villages, mobs from neighbouring, Bengali-majority villages raided the homes of Catholic Garo families in Bandadhara and the surrounding area. Several Catholic worshippers were injured. The police detained nineteen Catholics for questioning and movement restrictions remain in effect across the village.

China

On Monday 10 August, the court in Fuyang, Anhui Province, sentenced three leaders of the unregistered Maizhong Reformed Church, a Protestant house church, to prison terms ranging from one year and four months to one year and seven months for ‘organising illegal gatherings’. The prosecution cited worship services held in private homes, the celebration of marriages, and religious instruction as grounds for the convictions.

Congo

On Friday 31 July, ISCAP militiamen killed seventeen Christians and captured two more in the village of Monguiko, Ituri province. On Thursday 6 August, the same militiamen attacked a riverboat near Biondo, killing five Christians and sinking the vessel.

On Sunday 9 August, a coordinated assault on three neighbouring villages in the Mambasa territory, also in Ituri, resulted in thirty-two deaths and twenty-four Christians captured and over sixty homes and shops set ablaze.

Indonesia

On Sunday 9 August, armed military personnel entered St Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Wuloni, which is part of St Peter’s Parish in Ilaga (Diocese of Timika), in Central Papua. They coerced congregants into recording a video thanking President Prabowo Subianto and the armed forces.

Iran

As the eviction deadline of 12 August expired, guards were stationed outside St Peter’s Evangelical Church in Tehran, Iran’s oldest Protestant Christian church, to prevent members of the evangelical community from entering the premises. This is the latest development following the confiscation of the church in June and the forced eviction on 12 July, reported in the 21 July bulletin, when agents of the Ministry of Intelligence removed the last Assyrian and Armenian Christian families living within the complex.

Nigeria

On Thursday 6 August, Filibus Usman Kuje, the evangelical leader responsible for youth affairs within the Ungwan Takwa District Church Council of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) — an evangelical Christian denomination — was killed in an ambush by Fulani militants in Kokona County, Nasarawa State. He was returning to his village after a church meeting when the attack occurred.

On 12 August, armed Fulani militants attacked the villages of Kyeng and Gwa-Wereng Rim in Riyom County, Plateau State, killing two Christians. In Dorong and Jol, they set homes on fire and opened fire on Christian residents as they slept.

Then, on Sunday 16 August, more than one hundred Fulani militants arrived by motorcycle from the Taraba State border and simultaneously attacked nine Christian communities in the Mbaterem district of Ukum County, Benue State. The militants attacked as residents were preparing for Sunday worship. The attackers went from house to house, shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ and striking people with machetes. Ten Christians were killed and more than thirty seriously injured people were admitted to St Anthony’s Hospital in Zaki-Biam.

Pakistan

On Monday 10 August, Aamir Masih, a young Christian from Nowshera Virkan in the Gujranwala district of Punjab, was accused of blasphemy over a video he posted on TikTok. A formal complaint was filed against him the following day. Seven of his family members, who are also Christian, were taken into police custody while a Muslim crowd gathered and threatened to damage the family home.

In Pasrur, in the Sialkot district of Punjab, a group of men attacked a Christian labourer named Noman Masih at his workplace on 12 August. They used anti-Christian slurs, including the derogatory epithet ‘chura’, and beat, humiliated and pushed him into sewage water. A video of the assault was circulated on social media.

Spain

In the early hours of Saturday 1 August, a group of individuals broke through the main entrance doors of St Margaret Mary Alacoque Catholic Church in Madrid. Forcing open doors and cabinets, they reached the sacristy and stole cash and tools. They then ransacked several rooms before forcing open two tabernacles and removing a relic of the saint, which they discarded on the floor. The Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers) Foundation has filed a formal complaint, requesting a judicial investigation into the deliberate intent to offend the religious convictions of Catholic believers.

Vietnam

On Wednesday, 5 August, the People’s Court of Dak Lak Province sentenced Y Nuen Ayun, a Protestant pastor of the Ede ethnic group, to seven years and six months’ imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release, for ‘threatening the policy of national unity’. He had led the Central Highlands Protestant Church of Christ, a Protestant Christian community that is not recognised by the authorities. He was arrested at his home on 7 October 2025.

Through prayer, the Church confirms her solidarity with all the faithful in Christ who are victims of persecution.

“Be faithful until death,
and I will give you the crown of life”
(Rev 2:10)