Weekly Bulletin on the Persecution
of Christians Worldwide
4 August 2026
The Universal Christian Church of New Jerusalem publishes a weekly summary of press reports detailing the current state of persecution against believers in Christ across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
Armenia
Between 28 and 30 July, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a criminal case with the Court of First Instance in Echmiadzin, Armavir region, against the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and six bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern Orthodox confession, all of whom are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council. They are charged with failing to execute a judicial act or obstructing its execution by not reinstating Orthodox Bishop Gevorg Saroyan, a supporter of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The Church removed Saroyan from the Diocese of Masyatsotn on 10 January and reduced him to the lay state on 27 January. On 30 July, Judge Hakob Manukyan scheduled the preliminary hearing for 7 August. The seven Orthodox prelates face up to two years imprisonment and are all subject to a travel ban. These proceedings form part of a government campaign launched in May 2025 to secure the Catholicos’s removal, which has already resulted in the liquidation of the church broadcaster Shoghakat, the suppression of the military chaplaincy service, and the revocation of the Orthodox bishops’ travel documents.
China
On Friday 17 July, the Yinhai District Procuratorate in Beihai, Guangxi, submitted an indictment to the court against eight members of Beijing’s Zion Church, an unregistered house church. The members had been detained for nearly ten months. The indictment charged them with fraud and illegal business operations and was submitted without informing defence counsel or receiving their formal submissions.
On Sunday 26 July, police in Chengdu, Sichuan, raided gatherings of the Taisheng and Jinyu groups of the Early Rain Covenant Church, one of China’s most prominent unregistered Protestant house churches. Sunday school activities were halted, and officers recorded the personal details of all attendees; however, no arrests were made. Authorities have progressively increased pressure on smaller group meetings, through which the Protestant community has reorganised following raids in previous months. The community’s founder, Protestant Pastor Wang Yi, has been serving a nine-year prison sentence since December 2019 for inciting subversion of state power.
That same day, 26 July, in Yueyang (Hunan), upon completing a 15-day administrative detention imposed for illegally organizing religious activities, 60-year-old Protestant Pastor Huang Shi Tou, founder of Panshi Bible Church, along with Protestant worshipers Yang Jianjun and Hu Hongtao, were not released. Instead, the authorities transferred them to a detention centre for criminal detention on the heavier charge of illegally using information networks — a recently introduced criminal offence allowing for extended pre-trial custody and harsher penalties. As of 29 July, only Pastor Huang had been granted access to defence counsel, while Hu Hongtao and Yang Jianjun were still being denied all contact with lawyers or family members.
Congo
Between 20 and 24 July, militants of the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP) killed thirty-five Christians in three separate attacks in Ituri Province. On Monday, 20 July, they attacked the village of Mamuku, beheading fifteen Christians and setting thirty homes ablaze. On the same day, in the village of Soma, another ten Christians were captured and killed, and twenty houses were burned down. In the attack on the village of Lukaya on Friday, 24 July, ten more Christians were beheaded and labelled by the assailants as ‘fighters’ — a term used by Islamic State propaganda to describe Christians and Jews who have neither converted to Islam nor paid the jizya tax as a sign of submission. Since December 2024, ISCAP has killed at least 1,210 Christians in north-eastern parts of the country.
Ethiopia
On Wednesday 22 July, a drone strike hit the ancient Arsema Monastery, in the Southern Wollo area of the Amhara Region, belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, while a liturgical celebration was under way. Two Orthodox nuns and six priests were among those killed. Many Orthodox faithful who were attending the service were also wounded. The incident occurred amid the ongoing conflict between government forces and Fano militants, whom the government claims were using the Orthodox monastery as a refuge.
India
On 20 July, the government reintroduced the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill 2026. The proposed legislation stipulates that when an entity’s FCRA registration expires, is revoked, is surrendered, or is not renewed, a designated government authority will assume control of assets acquired through foreign funds, which may then be transferred to State departments or sold. Places of worship are subject to this mechanism while retaining their religious character.
Furthermore, the bill bans the use of foreign contributions for “proselytism” — a term still left undefined — thereby targeting the charitable, educational, and healthcare ministries of Christian Churches, which rely heavily on international support. On 17 July, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India called for a national day of prayer.
Nigeria
Between Friday, 24 July, and Wednesday, 29 July, at least twenty-two Christians were killed in separate attacks in Otukpo, Kwande, and Ohimini counties, Benue State. The most severe occurred on Tuesday, 28 July, at Efeyi-Utikpi, in the Ugboju district (Otukpo county). Around 5:00 AM, approximately fifty armed Fulani militants, arriving on over twenty-five motorcycles and shouting “Allahu Akbar,” opened fire and attacked residents in their homes. Fourteen bodies were recovered during the day, around thirty injured were hospitalised at Otukpo University Teaching Hospital, and several people are reported missing. On Wednesday, 29 July, the same group, while retreating, killed three more people at Emichi and Nwaba Oju, in the same district. On Monday, 27 July, a Christian was killed in the village of Ipom, and in Kwande county, Christian farmer Terhemba was shot dead by five fulani militants while working in her bambara groundnut field at Abaji. In Ohimini county, between Friday, 24 July, and Saturday, 25 July, three Christians were killed at Agadagba and Ochobo. On the first day, travellers were ambushed on the Elulu-Ochobo road, and on the second day, the village was assaulted, resulting in the deaths of two Christian local defence volunteers. Around thirty residents remain unaccounted for. Since 1 July, at least sixty-one Christians have been killed in Benue State alone.
Still on Wednesday, 29 July, at Asa III, in Otukpo county, armed men abducted Catholic seminarian Kelvin Ochai from the Catholic Bishop’s residence. The kidnapping was made public on Friday, 31 July, by the chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, Father Joseph Aboyi Itodo, in a letter addressed to priests, religious, and lay Catholic faithful. Catholic Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi entrusted the kidnapped seminarian and all kidnapping victims in the country to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On 29 July, Father Samuel Opeyemi Oyetoro, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Lokoja and parish priest at St Paul’s Catholic Church in Ayetoro Gbede, Ijumu County, was killed in an ambush on Church Road in Ajaokuta, Kogi State. At around 9:30 am, the police received a report of a body being found at the roadside. The priest had sustained severe machete wounds to the head. The Curia of the Catholic Diocese of Lokoja announced his death in a statement released that same day.
On Sunday 2 August, at least seven-armed men raided St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Inoyi, Affa community, Udi County, Enugu State, during Sunday Mass at around 8:30 am, interrupting the celebration while outside was raining. The Catholic faithful fled in panic. The assailants took Catholic seminarian Lawrence Chidera Igbo, the parish catechist and another parishioner named Emmanuel with them.
Pakistan
On Saturday 25 July in Faisalabad, District Judge Rana Sohail awarded custody of the 13-year-old Christian girl Amber Nadeem to Mohsin Liaqat, the Muslim man accused of abducting her, forcing her to convert to Islam and marrying her. The judge also granted the accused bail, despite him having been in judicial custody since 26 June 2026. This decision was made before a court-ordered medical report on the girl’s age had been submitted, despite objections from the public prosecutor who had presented the complete case file.
On 27 July, Amber testified to the magistrate that she had been pressured and coached by the accused’s family to claim that she was an adult. While the conversion and marriage certificates list her date of birth as June 2008, her Christian parish records verify that she is thirteen years old and that her parents married in 2012. The defence counsel warned Amber that renouncing Islam would expose her to apostasy charges and argued in court that legal protections for minors, women and religious minorities cease to apply upon conversion to Islam. Renamed Ayesha, the girl left the courtroom accompanied by the accused’s relatives and lawyers while her Christian parents, who are both day labourers, watched in tears.
Syria
On Sunday 19 July, Syrian authorities arrested Nihad Hassan, the head of the Kurdish Evangelical Church in Beirut and an evangelical pastor, in the village of Kurdan (in the nahiya of Jindires, in the Afrin district) while in his native village was visiting family. Having converted to Christianity in 2008, he has been engaged in pastoral ministry between Lebanon and Syria for years. He is currently being held in Afrin Central Civil Prison, and his case has been referred to the judicial authorities in Aleppo. In a statement released on 29 July, the Kurdish Evangelical community in Beirut announced the arrest and called for his immediate release. They report that the measure is motivated by social media posts attributed to him, though their content has not been disclosed. A local Syrian official has spoken of ‘religious incitement’. The authorities have issued no official clarification regarding the charges or the grounds for the arrest. This is the first case of its kind among Kurdish Christians in Syria.
Sudan
On Thursday, 23 July, a breakaway faction of the SPLA-N, supported by Islamic extremist groups, attacked the town of Heiban in the Nuba Mountains (South Kordofan State). An unconfirmed number of Christians were killed and several Christian leaders were abducted. Those kidnapped included Protestant Pastor Yaqob Ibrahim Tia of the Sudanese Church of Christ. He was seized from his home near his place of worship alongside his two sons (aged 17 and 20), a 15-year-old nephew and his brother, Daniel Ibrahim. The abductors have not made any ransom demands, which is consistent with other kidnappings that have occurred over the past three months. The incident was reported by his brother Fadi Ibrahim Tia, a Catholic priest in the Nuba Mountains and brother of the pastor, who noted growing hostility towards church leaders in the region.
The following day, on Friday 24 July, the same militants raided the Dabbi area in Heiban County. There, they kidnapped and murdered Fr Adel Idris Jongool, an Anglican priest from the Episcopal Church of Sudan who was serving in Dabbi. Dabbi is home to the Korkel Theological College, an Anglican seminary that trains clergy for the dioceses of Kadugli and Heiban. Local Church sources stated that the attackers targeted church leaders due to tribal and religious animosity. The Anglican Diocese of Heiban confirmed the attack in a statement issued by Anglican Bishop Al-Sir Hassan Kuku, who mourned the slain priest under his jurisdiction.
At this season of the Marian Ascension, the Church entrusts, in prayer, to the Heart of the Universal Mother, all these brothers and sisters, victims of persecution.
“We are well aware that God works with those who love him,
those who have been called in accordance with his purpose,
and turns everything to their good”
(Rm 8:28)
