Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide

28 July 2026

The Universal Christian Church of New Jerusalem publishes a weekly press summary of some significant reports from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America concerning the persecution of believers in Christ and in His holy Name, Jesus.

Indonesia

On Sunday 19 July, a Muslim mob stormed a service at the Christ the Answer Tabernacle Pentecostal church in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, forcing worshippers to stop under the pretext of a missing building permit. This incident reflects the recurring issue in Indonesia of violent opposition to Protestant worship gatherings lacking the complex administrative permits mandated for minority places of worship.

Iran

On 13 July, the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic published an official list of “hostile media entities” on the national legal portal. This action enforces a law that increases penalties for espionage and for cooperating with the “Zionist regime” and other hostile Nations. The designated networks include Persian-language Christian satellite broadcasters, such as the interdenominational Sat-7 Pars as well as the evangelical channels including Nejat TV, Mohabat TV, and Seven (Channel 7). For years, these channels have provided a vital source of information for Iranian converts in areas where all public preaching is forbidden. Any media, promotional, or cultural collaboration with these channels may now result in criminal prosecution in a legal system where the most serious offences are punishable by death.

Nicaragua

On 16 July, the Managua regime blocked Father Eliar Alonso Berríos, a Catholic priest of the Diocese of León, from returning to his homeland from Spain after completing three years of canon law studies at the University of Navarra. The entry denial was communicated to him by the airline on the day of his scheduled flight. Just days earlier, the Catholic parish of San Sebastián Mártir in León, which had announced him as its new pastor, was forced to retract the appointment. Now effectively exiled, the priest has also called for the release of Bishop Emeritus Juan Abelardo Mata of Estelí, demanding an end to his enforced disappearance.

Nigeria

At around midday on Saturday 18 July, an armed group believed to be affiliated with either Boko Haram or the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) stopped a public transport vehicle on the Maiduguri-Damasak road near the village of Kareto in Mobbar County, Borno State. The vehicle was stopped close to a military checkpoint. The militants ordered the wife and three children of Protestant pastor Moses Guguma to leave the vehicle. Pastor Guguma is the leader of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) congregation in Damasak, and his family were travelling there to join him. The other passengers were allowed to continue their journey, while the four family members were taken into the surrounding bush. Members of the Protestant community report that they were singled out because of their Christian faith. The militants are known for demanding substantial ransoms and for killing captives who refuse to convert to Islam. On Friday, 24 July, it emerged that seven of the thirty-seven Christians abducted on Easter Sunday, 5 April, during the attacks on the First ECWA Church and St Augustine Catholic Church in the village of Ariko (Kachia Local Government Area, southern Kaduna State), had died in captivity at a Fulani militant camp.

The victims included two men, two women, and three children, among them Dauda Manassas, aged seventy-one. Among the deceased was also the newborn child of one of the captive women. The baby was born in the camp and the umbilical cord had to be cut with human teeth as no blade was available. The baby survived for almost three weeks. Another woman belonging to the group of eleven Christians abducted in Awon on 20 April and held in the same camp, gave birth approximately two weeks earlier, but her baby died the following day. The survivors are sleeping outdoors with no shelter from the rain, and many of the children are unwell. At the time these events were reported, the Ariko hostages had been held captive for 110 days, while the Awon hostages had been held for 95 days.

On the night between Sunday 26 and Monday 27 July, Fulani militants attacked the Christian village of Naridon in the Kamaru Ward of the Kauru Local Government Area in southern Kaduna state, near the border with Plateau state. The attackers entered the village at around 11 p.m. and opened fire on residents — many of whom were already asleep — for almost three hours, while setting homes and businesses ablaze. At least thirty people were killed, including eight children, while four others were left critically injured. Despite military units being stationed in Kamaru and Ungwan Magaji, approximately two kilometres away, no intervention took place while the attack was underway.

Pakistan

On Thursday, 16 July, the body of the young Christian Khalid Masih was found abandoned outside a marble factory. He had been abducted four days earlier by men he knew from the local area. Despite police searches, there had been no sign of him until his body was found. A post-mortem examination revealed that he had died a violent death. Rather than filing a complaint in Khalid Masih’s name, a complaint was filed against unknown persons. Human Rights Focus Pakistan obtained testimony from his mother, Ashraf Bibi, and information about the possible motive from the family. They classified the killing as religiously motivated.

On Tuesday 21 July, Christian labourer Rashid Masih suffered severe burns when boiling cooking oil was thrown over him in Karachi. Employed as a day labourer at the Irshad Biryani restaurant, he was denied his wages at the end of his shift and asked for some bread instead. Human Rights Focus Pakistan reports that the assault was motivated by hatred and classifies it as a violation based on religion or belief.

Congo

Between 12 and 16 July, the Territory of Beni, in North Kivu province, was hit by three separate attacks attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist group linked to the Islamic State, resulting in more than twenty deaths overall. On 12 July, seven Christians and three Congolese armed forces soldiers were killed in an area west of the city of Beni. On 14 July, six Christians, including an elderly man and a worship leader from the local Protestant community, were killed in the rural commune of Mangina. Six others were injured, one person is reported missing, and two homes were set on fire. On 16 July, a further attack in the same area claimed ten Christian lives. A further attack in the same area on 16 July claimed ten more Christian lives. A Protestant pastor from Mangina, whose real name has been withheld for security reasons, has taken in ten displaced Christians and reports that fear is mounting and that the activities of the Protestant community have ground to a halt.

Ukraine

On Friday 17 July, the court in Krasnodon (known as Sorokyne in Ukrainian) in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region fully dismissed Baptist Pastor Vladimir Rytikov’s appeal against the revocation of his residence permit. The Interior Ministry’s migration service had issued the revocation order on 11/02/2025 at the request of the FSB, which had classified him as a security threat without providing any further justification. During the closed-door hearing, from which even his wife was barred, the security service asserted that its grounds were not subject to judicial review. Born in Krasnodon in 1959, Pastor Rytikov was previously imprisoned for three years as a prisoner of conscience during the Soviet era. Since 1990, he has led the Council of Churches Baptist community, a body that does not seek registration with Russian authorities. Over the past seven years, he has faced repeated prosecution and numerous fines for alleged illegal missionary activity and holding unregistered worship services. The authorities have seized the property deeds for the land and house where the Baptist church meets, and since early 2025, pension payments for him and his wife have been suspended.

Uganda

On Saturday 18 July, late in the evening, the twenty-five-year-old Protestant pastor Bernard Mulongo, from the New Restoration Church of Christ in the Butebo district, was killed in the Jami village, located about fifteen kilometres from Mbale in eastern Uganda. That afternoon, he had participated in an open-air interfaith public debate, at the conclusion of which two prominent Muslim women publicly converted to Christianity. He also appeared on a local radio programme that evening. According to David Omala, a Protestant pastor who was present at the debate, the Imam Hassan Musa confronted Mulongo at the end of the meeting. Musa told Mulongo that he deserved to die for blasphemy and for leading the Muslim faithful astray by misinterpreting the Quran. He also made other comments inciting violence against Christians. While he was returning home on a motorcycle with his friend, Robert Mukisa, some men in other vehicles overtook them and blocked their path. Mukisa threw himself to the ground and fled, while the assailants detained the pastor. His body was found shortly afterwards in a pool of blood with injuries to his head, right hand, chest and back. He was taken to the Mbale morgue. Imam Hassan Musa is currently under investigation and on the run; the police have not made any arrests. The young protestant pastor leaves behind his wife and two children, aged four and seven. He was buried in the village of Petete.

During this season of the Ascension of Mary, the Church entrusts to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our brothers and sisters who are victims of persecution. In the eyes of God, not one of these lives is lost.

“Jesus Christ our Saviour,
whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
so that, having been justified by his grace,
we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life”
(Tt 3:6-7)