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by Daniele Frison, 01/14/2026

The 2026 World Watch List has been published. The number of countries suffering “extreme" level of oppression is up from 13 to 15 with nine in Asia and the Middle East. North Korea tops the list for 24 years. In Syria, the situation has worsened since Assad fled. State surveillance in China, anti-conversion laws in India, and violence in Myanmar are a source of great concern.

Rome (AsiaNews) – Open Doors today released its 2026 report on hostility towards Christians showing that anti-Christian persecution around the world continues relentless.

After 33 years, persecution has reached a record in absolute terms, confirming the trend of recent years. From 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, more than 388 million Christians endured a high level of discrimination because of their faith, up from 380 million a year before.

This touches two out of five Christians in Asia. The number of countries experiencing "extreme" levels of persecution is up from 13 to 15, nine are in Asia and the Middle East, occupying the top spots on the 2026 World Watch List while North Korea remains in first place.

For more than three decades, the Evangelical NGO, which runs practical support projects for persecuted Christians in more than 70 countries, has used local networks, researchers, and analysts to monitor various forms of oppression, as presented today in Rome.

The latter include killings (up from 4,476 to 4,849 in one year), attacks on churches and private property (down from 7,679 to 3,632), and attacks on homes, shops, and businesses (down from 28,368 to 25,794).

Oppression also involves detentions, convictions, and kidnappings, as well as mental and physical abuse, like beatings, and death threats (up from 54,780 to 67,843). Another form is forcing people to abandon their home becoming internally displaced persons or refugees (up from 209,000 to about 224,000 cases).

The report covers all Christian denominations without distinction.

For the past 24 years, North Korea with its "zero tolerance for Christians” has topped the World Watch List of the 50 worst countries (except for 2022). Open Doors highlights again this year "the regime's dictatorial paranoia against the Christian community."

Between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are thought to be held in forced labour camps in North Korea; with "abundant evidence" of the practice of "brutal interrogations" against fugitives repatriated from China. All this fuels the “underground or hidden Church," says the 2026 report.

Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan follow. "Strongly Islamic nations," it emphasises, where the persecution of Christians is linked “to a tribal Islamic society, active extremism, and endemic instability.” Like in North Korea, the Christian faith is practised in secret; if discovered, Christians, especially former Muslim converts, risk death.

Next in line are Eritrea, deemed the "North Korea of ​​Africa”, and Syria, which jumped from 18th to 6th place in just 12 months.

The latter “is the real surprise this year," Open Doors states. Twenty-seven Christians were killed in the reporting period. The lives of Christians have "changed radically" since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

The 2026 report cites the attacks on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama and the June 2025 suicide bombing in Damascus that killed 22 people at the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church. These developments are compounded by hostility toward churches and schools.

Persecution also comes from Syrian authorities, with the provisional constitution approved in March 2025 inspired by "Islamic jurisprudence as the main source of legislation".

Some 300,000 Christians still live in Syria where their fate is seriously impacted by the fragmentation of political power.

Nigeria (7th place) remains the country with the highest number of Christians killed in the world. Since 2020, they number “over 25,200”, according to Open Doors.

Pakistan (8th) remains “steady in the top 10 for many years," with 24 Christians killed because of their faith. Libya ranks ninth. Iran follows, with “the situation slightly worse” in anti-Christian violence, exacerbated by the brief war with Israel in June 2025.

In 11th place is Afghanistan. Following the rise of the Taliban, "many Christians have been killed," the report notes, while the few who remain live hidden, in “total secrecy”.

India ranks 12th. "We have been denouncing the decline of the Christian minority's fundamental freedoms for years," Open Doors points out. Some 16 Christians were killed from October 2024 to September 2025, while 192 were “detained without trial, in prison or psychiatric hospitals for reasons related to their faith.”

The growing intolerance in India is fuelled by the Hindutva movement, which "promotes the idea that all Indians should be Hindu, portraying Christians as traitors," the report states.

Women who convert to Christianity are "particularly vulnerable," victims of abuse and forced marriage. The situation is exacerbated by anti-conversion laws in force in 12 Indian states.

The list of 15 countries with "extreme" levels of persecution is rounded out by Saudi Arabia (13), Myanmar (14), and Mali (15).

Despite "some positive developments in religious freedom," such as tolerance for Christmas decorations in some cities, things worsened somewhat in Saudi Arabia. "Significant restrictions" remain, and "deportations of foreign Christians" have been reported.

The situation in Myanmar is "consistently negative," says Open Doors with a rise in the number of Christians killed and detained (99 and 129). Attacks on churches, however, have decreased, even in Christian-majority states.

The increase in fighting during the recent elections has increased internal displacement, and converts are persecuted by their own families and communities.

The 2026 report includes an in-depth analysis of China (17th place), which has achieved its worst record ever. The cause of this decline is not "violence," but rather "national life”.

In September 2025, Beijing introduced 18 “Regulations on the Online Behaviour of Religious Clergy," which "require religious leaders to support the Communist Party”. Initiatives like this make it "increasingly difficult for Churches to avoid aligning themselves with official communist ideology."

This has resulted in the fragmentation of house churches, deemed “illegal” with Christian leaders charged with economic crimes. In some places, young people are banned from accessing church premises, with checks carried out by "surveillance cameras" and “plainclothes police”.

Open Doors reports “some good news”, especially in South Asia, with "relative calm" in Bangladesh following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. Muhammad Yunus, head of an interim government, "has made a series of public statements on the importance of religious freedom," the report says.

In Sri Lanka, the government led by President Dissanayake, elected in 2024, “does not give priority to any religious group,” improving the “treatment reserved for Christians.”

Finally, in Malaysia, the reopening of the investigation into the disappearance of Rev Raymond Koh, kidnapped by unknown masked men in 2017, after eight years, gives hope.