Every day, an average of more than 12 Christians are killed for their faith.
That’s two Christians every hour … murdered because they follow Jesus.
This shocking statistic comes from new research released as part of
Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, the annual report that ranks the 50 places where it’s most difficult to live as a Christian. The research took place from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, giving us a snapshot of how violent the persecution of Christians is.
Other numbers are just as horrifying. 7,679 churches or public Christian properties were attacked or forced to close. 4,744 believers were arrested, imprisoned, detained without trial or sentenced—just because of their faith. 3,775 followers of Jesus were abducted. 3,944 Christians were sexually assaulted, sexually harassed or forcibly married to non-Christians. Nearly 55,000 believers were mentally or physically abused for their faith, and 28,368 houses, shops or businesses belonging to Christians were attacked. And finally, nearly 210,000 followers of Christ were forced to flee their homes.
All simply because they claim the name of Christ.
These numbers each represent real Christians, attacked and left wounded for their faith. Believers like Pastor John in Burkina Faso bear the scars of the violence they experienced.
The place where he lived and served has steadily grown more dangerous. Islamic extremists have grown in number and boldness. They warned Pastor John that he had to convert to Islam … or else. Yet, the bold church leader decided to stay to care for his church—the believers he refers to as “my faithful.”
After a nearby village was attacked, the Christians in Pastor John’s village were given a final warning: convert, leave or face attack. Within a day, all the believers left for Bobo-Dioulasso, the second-largest city in Burkina Faso.
They would never reach it.
“Bobo was too far.” Pastor John says. “Our motorbikes were out of fuel. We wound up stranded. We had no choice but to stay.”
Ten days later, around 4 pm, 200 heavily armed, enraged Islamic militants entered the village. Some fired high, while others took low shots to kill as many people as possible. Villagers ran in all directions.
When the shooting started, John was some distance away, visiting the home of a sick congregation member. “I heard the shots and wanted to go there,” he remembers. “I knew they were slaughtering my flock. But the head of the household prevented me. ‘They will shoot you too!’ he said. But I needed to help the believers … I went mad in my mind and left the house on foot. I wanted to go to the church and find my people there.”
John came under fire. Bullets flew by him on his left and right, forcing him to flee into the bushes.
His deepest fears had come true.
Stop the violence, start the healing
It’s important to note that the Open Doors’ research into violence results in total numbers that are lower than the reality—most of World Watch List research depends on direct counting or from trusted indirect sources. Where there was some dispute about whether or not the violence was because of faith in Jesus, researchers took a cautious approach and went with a conservative estimate.
In short, the real numbers are likely much higher. But the World Watch List numbers are shocking enough as they are.
Pastor John is one of the hundreds of thousands who have been forced to flee their homes because of his faith. His son was murdered, one of the 4,776 believers killed for their faith last year. In all, 113 members of John’s community were killed in the attack.
Burkina Faso is one of the places where violence has continued to be a massive problem for followers of Jesus. It’s part of an ongoing crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions of Christians are displaced, and thousands are killed each year. Currently, 8 of the top 10 deadliest places for Christians are in subSaharan Africa—and all of them except Nigeria had more faith-based killings than they did during the previous reporting period.
It's why Open Doors has begun the Arise Africa campaign, a multi-year effort to ask the world to wake up and pay attention to shocking violence against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. Will you add your voice and help stop the violence and start the healing?
Click here to get started.
‘… the time is coming’
It would be a mistake to only look at the violence against believers, as shocking as it is. Just as each number is a real person, each statistic also represents real faith in the world—God at work, even in the most painful circumstances imaginable.
Pastor John shows the resilience demonstrated by so many violently persecuted Christians. The morning after the attack, he and other Christians in the village came together to fast and pray. They read from John 16:
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.”
John had always been a faithful prayer warrior but in the aftermath of the attack, he stopped talking to the Lord. The bullet that killed his son also killed his prayers. It’s not that he didn’t want to pray anymore, but if his prayers were a river, the stream had dried up.
The flames that destroyed the church building also destroyed John’s hope. How could he carry on? He felt like a massive failure.
But the Lord didn’t let go of John, and in his immense grief, he learned a valuable lesson. “I couldn’t pray, because when I prayed, I wept,” he says. “But when I wept, I prayed with tears.”
Every tear that slid down his face was a prayer, one that God will never forget.
Eventually, Open Doors’ local partners found out about John’s story and helped him get trauma care and work through his grief.
John’s grief cannot be magically taken away. There’s no cure for his nightmares. But he is back on his feet, thanks to your prayers and support. “Your trauma group therapy gave me new hope, new strength,” he says. “I give glory to God for your help. We have been given new hope and new faith. You have helped me in the work of the Lord. Now I know I will press on in His work. Whatever happens, I will continue to do the work of God.”
Ultimately, that’s the real story of the violence against God’s people, and it’s how we can still find hope even in painful stories like Pastor John’s. Jesus cared so much for His disciples that He spent His last evening before His death teaching them about how they would be persecuted.
So first, we can pray. As Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, always said,
“Our prayers can go where we cannot. There are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray.” Pastor John received hope because he knew that others were praying.
Second, we can enable people to visit and help those who experience violent persecution. As Brother Andrew put it,
“When we go, they are encouraged. When we give, they are strengthened. When we pray, they are protected.” Pastor John says he could not have resumed his work for the Lord without your support.
So thank you for your prayers and your support for Pastor John and the countless other Christians represented by these statistics. May our prayers, love and hope not grow cold, and may we be encouraged by the resilient faith of our persecuted brothers and sisters.
