Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide

23 June 2026

The Universal Christian Church of New Jerusalem commends all the martyrs of the faith in Christ the Lord to the Father through unceasing prayer, and reports the most significant events of the persecution of the disciples of Jesus worldwide.

Nigeria

Between Wednesday, 10 June, and Friday, 12 June, a series of attacks carried out by Fulani militants bloodied Christian communities in Riyom County, Plateau State. On 10 June, forty-eight-year-olds Davou Dalyop Patu and Dalyop Zaram were brutally murdered in the village of Ta-Hoss. The following day, the assailants killed fifty-five-year-old Toma Chuwang at the Bangai mining site. On 12 June, the community of Torok was struck by a further attack. In just a few days, four Christians lost their lives and numerous families were forced to flee their homes out of fear.

At around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday 16 June, five Christians working at a mining site in the Gero area near the village of Gyel in Plateau State were massacred by Fulani militiamen.

At around 10:00 p.m. on the same evening of 16 June, a group of terrorists stormed an area near St. Monica’s Parish in the village of Angwa Magaji in Kaduna State, killing nine Christians and wounding eleven others. Four children were also killed: Moses Daddy (aged four); Esther Kefas and Sunday Elkan (both aged five); and Happy Friday (aged six).

The Bokkos area of Plateau State, was the scene of a double tragedy. On 16 June, Samuel Alaket, head of the Gwande district, was killed in an ambush. A few days later, on the night between Sunday 21 June and Monday 22 June, the Christian villages of Kawel and Mushere were attacked by Fulani militants who set fire to homes and the local hospital, leaving over twenty Christians dead. This is yet another chapter in a persecution that shows no sign of ending.

China

On Friday 12 June, the indictment of three leaders of the Maizhong Reformed Church was made public in the city of Fuyang, Anhui Province: Pastor Zhang Sen, the elder person Ma Tao, and Pastor Chang Shun, who had been detained since 29 June 2025 and tried on 9 and 10 June. They were charged with ‘organising illegal gatherings’, but this was based entirely on ordinary church activities, such as holding worship services in private homes, performing religious marriages, providing Christian education for the children of churchgoers, and welcoming a released detainee back into the community. The Protestant congregation had refused to submit to the regime-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

Also on 12 June, in Qinghai province, six preachers, including Elder Song, were detained while gathered in prayer in a private home and have not been released to date. The criminalization of the most basic expressions of faith testifies to the intensifying repression systematically targeting unregistered house churches.

Kyrgyzstan

On Wednesday, 17 June, in Bishkek, a court ordered two months of pretrial detention for five members of the Adventist Church, which has been banned in the Country. Three men and two women have been accused of “producing and disseminating extremist materials,” a charge that could carry a prison sentence of between five and seven years. The lead investigator has also announced the opening of investigations on at least twenty other believers, suggesting the systematic judicial persecution of an entire community of faith.

These brothers and sisters, persecuted for their love of Jesus, represent the “good soil” in the parable of the sower. Though tested by tribulation, they have not faltered. Instead, they have treasured the seed of the Word of God in their hearts and nourished it through their fidelity, even to the point of offering the gift of their lives, bearing the most precious fruit through their martyrdom.

The Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem entrusts these witnesses of the Living God to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Church, looks upon these devoted children with deep emotion, knowing that their testimony is a seed sown in good soil, in the certainty that no tear or drop of blood shed for the love of the Name “God-Save” will be lost.

“And there are those who have been sown in rich soil;
they hear the word and accept it and yield a
harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold”
(Mk 4:20)