(RNS)—A group of NFL players sent a letter to Capitol Hill on Dec. 19, urging U.S. leaders to take steps to curb violence against religious groups in Nigeria, including Christians.

“As current and former NFL players who care deeply about justice—here in America and around the world—we are grieved and outraged by the mounting violence, and we write to urge you to act now to confront religious persecution in Nigeria and ensure that those responsible are held to account,” the players stated in the letter.

About 60 current and former players signed the letter, addressed to President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Among the signers were star players like quarterback C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans, Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers and Treveyon Henderson of the New England Patriots, a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year.

Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy also signed, as did Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons, Jameis Winston of the New York Giants, and three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty.

Prompted by reports of religious violence

Benjamin Watson, an author and podcaster who played 15 years in the NFL, helped organize the letter in his role as editor-in-chief of Sports Spectrum, a faith and sports media company.

Watson said the letter was prompted in part by recent news of religious violence in Nigeria, including the November kidnapping of more than 200 children from a Catholic boarding school. That attack is part of a large pattern of violence against religious groups in Nigeria.

Since 2009, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the U.S. Department of State to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” because of the ongoing violence.

“Perpetrators of the violence have attacked religious sites, including churches and mosques, kidnapped or killed religious leaders, and—in some cases—used violence or threats of violence against religious communities while demanding so-called taxes, invoking Shari’a law as justification,” according to a commission report from July.

According to the report, government-enforced blasphemy laws and attacks by bandits, Muslim insurgents and gangs have created “significant restrictions on freedom of religion or belief.”

“This violence severely restricts religious practice and observance by Christians, Muslims, and traditional religious communities across many Nigerian states in the Middle Belt and in the northeast,” according to the report.

Recommendations for U.S. action

Watson said players want to see U.S. leaders do more to address the violence against religious groups, including imposing sanctions and sending more humanitarian aid to victims of violence.

The letter, which notes that a number of NFL players come from Nigerian families, includes a list of seven recommendations for U.S. government actions. The list was compiled with the help of NGOs and aid groups working in Nigeria, as well as nonprofits that assist persecuted Christians.

“We came together with the idea to lend our voice in urging the president and Congress to keep pressing them to deliver sanctions, to provide humanitarian aid,” Watson said. “We want to show that we’re amongst the people who care and want to stand up with our brothers and sisters who are suffering in Nigeria.”

The letter is a first for Sports Spectrum, a 40-year-old publication focused on sports and faith. While players involved with the publication have spoken out in the past on issues like racial reconciliation, the need for clean water and other concerns, the group never issued a letter to U.S. political leaders.

Watson said he hopes the message will reach not only politicians, but also the fans who read the publication. He said the violence in Nigeria should concern everyone.

‘This was a moment where we had an opportunity to speak about justice and about kindness and about caring for our neighbors in a way that, right now, has been in the news,” he said.

‘We want to do all we can do’

Steve Stenstrom, a former NFL quarterback and president of Sports Spectrum, said that the kidnapping of school children in Nigeria hit home.

“We want to do all we can do, as if it were our own families and our own kids who were at those schools and in those churches and in those villages,” he said.

There’s been pushback from some fans in recent years against athletes, especially in the NFL, for taking public stands on social issues. Most notably, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick claimed NFL owners colluded to ban him from the league after Trump criticized him for kneeling during the national anthem. Kaepernick eventually reached a settlement with the league.

Stenstrom acknowledged that these are polarizing times but said some issues transcend politics.

“This isn’t a left or right issue,” he said. “It’s a life-or-death issue for people on the ground.”

In their letter, the players said they felt a moral responsibility to speak up.

“We ask you, as leaders of this nation, to use the full weight of your offices to defend the fundamental right to live and worship freely and to send a clear message that the United States will not stand by while Nigerians are targeted, terrorized, and killed because of their faith,” they wrote. “The lives at stake cannot wait.”

Armed assailants attacked two churches in Nigeria’s Kogi State in recent weeks and abducted worshippers, a United Kingdom-based human rights organization focused on international religious freedom reported.

Attackers opened fire as they entered Aiyetoro Kiri in the Kabba-Banu Local Government Area on Dec. 14, disrupting worship at First Evangelical Church Winning All. They subsequently abducted at least 13 worshippers, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.

The Dec. 14 abductions marked the second attack on a church in Kogi State within two weeks. On Nov. 30, militia disrupted services at the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ejiba, abducting the pastor, his wife, a visiting preacher and several church members.

Speaking on Channels Television’s “Morning Brief” program, Kingsley Fanwo, the commissioner for information and communication in Kogi State, said local hunters engaged in a fierce gunfight with the assailants in the Dec. 14 attack.

“Our local hunters, who serve as the first line of defense, resisted them strongly,” Fanwo said. “In the exchange of fire, four bandits were neutralized, while several others escaped with gunshot wounds.”

Fanwo reported the Kogi State governor mobilized a joint security task force including local hunters and the police, as well as the Nigerian Army’s 12th Brigade, the Department of State Services, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps.

The joint task force is searching the Ejiba forest, seeking to locate the abducted individuals, he added.

Daily Trust reported Nigeria’s House of Representatives called on Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector general of police, to deploy security personnel to identified “hotspots” along high-risk routes—particularly on the highway between the federal capital of Abuja and the Koji State capital of Lokoja—during the Christmas season to ensure the safety of travelers.

‘Increased attacks as Christmas approaches’

Scot Bower, chief executive officer of CSW, lamented the Nigerian government’s failure to “provide swift intervention and protection to its citizens”—particularly the nation’s Christian population.

“While CSW welcomes and echoes the call of the National Assembly for the deployment of security to vulnerable roads, we urge the Nigerian authorities to go further still by ensuring the safety of churches in areas experiencing increased attacks as Christmas approaches,” Bower said.

“Government at both the state and federal level must work together to ensure Christians and their communities are protected, particularly in longstanding hotspots such as Benue, Plateau, Taraba and southern Kaduna, and in emerging ones, such as Kogi and Kwara States.”

On Nov. 26, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a national security emergency in light of a surge in violence and abductions. Tinubu ordered the police to recruit 20,000 officers, in addition to 30,000 he had authorized earlier, and to use National Youth Service Corps camps as training depots.

‘Stop the denial and blame game’

However, while Nigerian government officials acknowledge the problem of violence, they continue to deny Christians are targeted.

In an October interview with the Baptist Standard, Mohammed Idris Malagi, minister of information and national orientation for Nigeria, insisted: “It is sad that this has been characterized as a religious conflict. We don’t believe that it is. It never has been a religious conflict. It actually is an extremist conflict.”

Joseph John Hayab, a Baptist pastor and chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern states and Federal Capital territory, called that denial “a contributing factor to the lack of good success in the fight against terrorists.”

Hayab pointed to “overwhelming evidence” of the killing and persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s government should simply stop the denial and blame game and face this evil with all their might,” Hayab wrote in an email to the Baptist Standard. “The sponsors of the terrorists are not spirits and can be arrested if the government is serious.”

In late October, President Donald Trump declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern—a designation reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.

KADUNA, Nigeria (BP)—Nigerian church leaders insist Christians in their country are persecuted for their faith, rejecting a growing narrative that violence in their country is not religion-based.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Nov. 26 declaration of a national security emergency in response to growing violence there is only “window-dressing,” speakers said, and does not indicate the government will work to end Christian persecution.

In a Dec. 16 global briefing hosted by leading religious freedom advocate Open Doors International, journalist and researcher Stephen Kefas of Kaduna, Abuja House of Representatives member Terwase Orbunde, and human rights attorney, journalist and professor Jabez Musa verified atrocities committed against fellow Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and in the nation’s north.

Refuting the Nigerian government narrative

When U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for committing or failing to stop egregious religious freedom violations, government officials insisted Christians are no more persecuted in Nigeria than Muslims.

The speakers at the global briefing refuted the narrative, confirming violence through research and personal stories of persecution. They discredited reports that violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is driven by a centuries-old land-rights dispute between Christians and Fulani herdsmen.

“I can say with all sense of responsibility that, indeed, Christians have been persecuted in Nigeria, and there are so many documented evidences that point to that fact that they have been persecuted in the country,” said Kefas, founder of the Middlebelt Times and a senior analyst for the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.

“No matter how objective you want to be, no matter how conservative you want to be, you cannot put away that fact.”

Christian communities overrun by terrorists

Kefas, a journalist and former political prisoner who has reported on violence in the Middle Belt for more than 15 years, said Christian communities have been overrun by Islamist terrorists who have destroyed churches, abducted and killed Christians and left communities impoverished by demanding ransoms, destroying property and confiscating belongings.

While other religions exist in the Middle Belt, Kefas said, “only Christians are being targeted” there. What’s more, in the Muslim-majority north, where 12 states are governed by Sharia Law, the few Christians in the region suffer more casualties than moderate Muslims.

“How do you explain that?” Kefas asked. “What I’ve documented in the last 15 years as a journalist on the ground, I can tell you that indeed, there is an ongoing persecution against Christians in Nigeria.”

Violence intensified in Nigeria’s north with the emergence of Boko Haram in 2009, a terrorist group with ties to the Islamic State that has spurred the formation of other factions focused on violence against Christians.

“The group’s brutal tactics, including bombings, kidnappings, abductions, rape and forced marriages and killings, intensified, which have since disproportionately affected Christians and other vulnerable groups,” Musa said.

“Literally, Boko Haram prohibits and hates anything Western, particularly education, and Christianity is viewed by them as a Western culture which must be crushed.”

Musa described as conservative his estimate of Boko Haram killing more than 50,000 Christians in the northeast in the past 15 years, with hundreds of thousands of others displaced and forced to flee the region.

Heavily armed militant groups target Christians

Of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith in 2024, the majority of them, 3,100, were killed in Nigeria, Open Doors reported in its 2025 World Watch List.

Militant Fulani, the Islamic State-West Africa Province, Lakawara and the newly emerging Mahmuda are active terrorist groups targeting Christians nationwide, advocates have said, with Genocide Watch reporting at least 62,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria between 2000 and 2020 because of their faith.

Today, militant Fulani are several times more deadly than Boko Haram and are armed with AK-47s and machine guns, Musa said. An ORFA report Kefas authored supports Musa’s claim.

Nigerians in the Middle Belt are offended by the narrative that violence in the mostly Christian region is driven by an age-old land dispute between Christians and Fulani, leaders said.

Attacks coincide with Christian holy days

They pointed out Christians and Fulani lived amicably there before terrorist attacks began. And those killed are Christians, indicating Christians are not attacking Muslims, but only vice versa.

“Land is the least of the things,” Orbunde said. “That may be what they ultimately want, to take the land, but first is to destroy the people. And because they are Christians, we cannot separate that fact.”

Terrorists attack churches and plan their attacks to coincide with holy days, the leaders said, pointing out Middle Belt attacks at Christmas for several years, and deadly attacks at Easter in 2025 in the Middle Belt and north.

Kefas cited research and interviews he has conducted in at least 70 majority-Christian villages where Fulani lived peaceably alongside Christians for decades before terrorism spread.

“It’s the same thing we see all over the world. It happened in Australia a few days ago, when a particular people were having something they wanted to celebrate, and then you have terrorists come and kill them,” Kefas said, referencing the Dec. 14 slaughter of Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach. “So, I think it’s the same thing.”

JERUSALEM (RNS)—In 2023 and 2024, Israeli tour guide David Ha’ivri didn’t offer his popular English-language Hanukkah or Christmas tours.

Tourism had plummeted after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and the start of the Hamas-Israel war, when nearly every international airline canceled flights to Israel.

But in the past few months, and especially after the shaky October ceasefire, tourism to Israel and the Bethlehem region of the West Bank has picked up, along with Israel’s national mood.

‘We are an optimistic people’

In fact, Ha’ivri once again is offering Hanukkah tours for overseas visitors and English-speaking locals. The eight-day Festival of Lights began Dec. 14 at sundown and runs through Dec. 22.

“The airlines are reestablishing their service, and I think that’s a good barometer that people are prepared and eager to visit Israel,” said Ha’ivri, whose Christmas tours remain paused until more pilgrims return.

“The mood here has changed. A lot of Israelis who were army reservists are mostly back at home with their families. We feel we’re getting back to a more normal atmosphere.

“We are an optimistic people. We know bad things can happen, but we want to believe that there are good things ahead of us.”

‘Light up the night’

After two years of war and heartbreak, the ceasefire—despite violations—has given some hope that the war will end in the foreseeable future.

While residents recognize hostilities could escalate, the atmosphere in Jerusalem and Bethlehem is palpably more festive for the holidays this year, with a full schedule of public holiday bazaars, concerts and events.

Many of the activities, once canceled out of respect for grieving families or because no one had the heart to celebrate, have returned.

That’s especially true for social events timed for Hanukkah, which coincides with Jewish schools’ winter break in Israel.

“For two long years we kept saying, ‘We will dance again.’ Now—finally—we get to come together, light up the night, and move as one,” reads an invitation for a public dance party scheduled for the fifth night of Hanukkah.

Celebrating Christmas publicly again

And, for the first time since the start of the war, many Christian communities in Israel and the West Bank are celebrating Christmas publicly.

In 2023, Holy Land church leaders asked their congregations “to set aside unnecessary celebrations.” They spoke against putting up Christmas decorations and hosting concerts, markets and the outdoor lighting of Christmas trees out of solidarity with suffering Palestinians in Gaza.

A year later, the church leaders reversed their decision, but last year’s celebrations were mostly indoors and revolved around family and prayer.

This year, though, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, encouraged locals and other Catholics around the world to openly celebrate Christ’s birth in the Holy Land. Christian businesses have been especially hard hit by the dearth of pilgrims because they rely heavily on tourism for their livelihoods.

Hope present though pilgrims are few

At the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, a Catholic guesthouse and meeting place across the street from the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a tall decorated Christmas tree graces the entrance. A large Nativity scene and another shimmering tree await visitors in the festively decorated lobby.

Asked whether Christmas feels different this year, Yousef Barakat, the center’s director, said, “Yes and no.”

“For two years we didn’t make any decorations, just prayers in the churches,” he said. “But the patriarch told us we must create Christmas joy for the children. They deserve to be happy.”

At the same time, Barakat said, “there are almost no pilgrims” this year. Although hotel occupancy is “very low” in both Jewish-majority West Jerusalem and Arab-majority East Jerusalem, he said “we are more dependent on pilgrims from outside the country” than West Jerusalem hotels that cater to both Jewish and non-Jewish tourists.

Before the Hamas attack, Notre Dame employed 180 people. Today that number is 75.

“Still, the ceasefire is giving us hope,” Barakat said. “We are hosting a charity bazaar and a concert by a Christian band. You can feel the difference between now and two years ago.”

Lighting a candle of hope

Nabil Razzouk, a Coptic Christian tour guide who lives in Jerusalem, has not led a tour group since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

“I had hoped some groups would come this Christmas, but I waited until the end of November, and when no bookings came, I flew to Vienna, where I’m being hosted by relatives,” Razzouk said in a phone call from Austria. “My earliest booking is with a pastor who is bringing a group from America this spring.”

Just inside the entrance to the Christian Quarter on the third Sunday of Advent, laborers and vendors were racing to complete the preparations for the return of the Christmas market. The thud of hammers mixed with the sounds of Western Christmas songs.

“We hope the war is finally finished and that we’ll have a marvelous Christmas this year,” said Daoud Kassabry, director of the Collège des Frères Catholic school in the Christian Quarter, as he prepared for the public Christmas tree lighting at his school as sundown approached.

“Today, we are lighting the third candle of the Advent season,” he said. “It is the candle of joy and hope.”

NEW DELHI (BP)—Two thousand Christians gathered in India in November to urge the government to protect religious freedoms as violence and legalized discrimination increase in the world’s most populous country.

Representatives of more than 200 Christian denominations advocated for religious freedoms at the day-long National Christian Convention Nov. 29, spotlighting a 500 percent increase in targeted attacks against Christians from 2014 to 2024, religious persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.

More than 830 attacks against Christians were recorded in 2024, based on a report from the United Christian Forum, representing an increase from 139 such cases in 2014.

Physical assaults on pastors based on unverified allegations of forced conversions, and mobs vandalizing churches were among reported incidents. Anti-conversion laws and concerns over the Presidential Order of 1950, which continues to deny Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Christians and other Dalits, were also discussed.

“Speakers emphasized that this policy continues to trap millions in generational poverty by denying access to education reservations, employment opportunities and land rights,” CSW said in a press release.

“Delegates from tribal communities highlighted mounting pressure in mineral-rich belts like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha where tribal Christians are at risk of being delisted from the Schedule Tribe list.”

Dalits in India are historically considered “untouchable” and broken, and have suffered decades of persecution in the system that puts them at the bottom of a rigid caste system, despite constitutional protections outlawing such persecution.

Protests near the Indian Parliament

Coinciding with the convention, about 3,500 Christians and others publicly protested near the Indian Parliament Nov. 29, decrying the government’s failure to curb the violence. Instead, protestors said, officials often arrest Christian victims instead of perpetrators.

In 80 percent of the cases the United Christian Forum tracked, police did not investigate because First Information Reports were not filed, as required by law.

CSW also urged the government to intervene to protect the rights of Christians in the nation whose constitution claims religious freedom.

“CSW stands in solidarity with India’s Christian community and joins them in their call on the government of India to uphold constitutional protections for freedom of religion or belief, to ensure accountability for perpetrators of targeted violence, and to remove discriminatory provisions that impact vulnerable communities,” said Mervyn Thomas, founding president of CSW.

Convention attendees vowed to draft a national manifesto calling for religious freedom protections for all Christians, equality for Dalits, and justice for those facing persecution.

Concerns about influence of Hindu nationalists

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its January 2025 annual report, urged the U.S. State Department to designate India a Country of Particular Concern, citing systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Christians comprise about 2.3 percent, or 27 million, of India’s 1.4 billion people, according to censusofindia.net. Hinduism is the mostly widely practiced religion there, cited by 79.8 percent of the population, with Muslims the largest minority religion at 14.23 percent. A few states are majority Christian, with believers concentrated in certain areas, Pew Research Center reported in 2021.

An interconnected relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elected in 2014, and the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh works to strengthen religious persecution, USCIRF said in a November update.

“Despite offering some constitutional protections for FoRB (freedom of religion or belief), India’s political system facilitates a climate of discrimination toward religious minority communities,” USCIRF said, citing discriminatory legislation limiting citizenship, and criminalizing religious conversion and the slaughter of cows.

“The enforcement of such laws disproportionately targets and impacts religious minorities and their ability to freely practice their religion or belief as outlined in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a signatory,” USCIRF wrote.

Oppressive governments not only violate freedom of religion by imprisoning adherents of disfavored religions, but also subjecting them to harassment and even torture during their incarceration, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports.

“Governments deliberately use mistreatment as a strategy to demoralize and disavow religious dissidents of their belief or the expression of those beliefs,” the commission states in a December factsheet on prison mistreatment and freedom of religion or belief.

“Reports of mistreatment in prison have a chilling effect on disfavored religious communities outside of prison as well,” as individuals fear their lawful exercise of religion will make them targets of government repression, the factsheet states.

The factsheet cites specific examples of mistreatment of prisoners in Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan.

Mai Serwa Prison in Eritrea

Most inmates at Mai Serwa Prison—an isolated and overcrowded facility north of the Eritrean capital of Asmara—are packed into metal shipping containers, where they are subject to extreme heat and cold.

“Scores of prisoners, including those detained on the basis of religion, have died at Mai Serwa,” the commission factsheet states.

“Former inmates and doctors report torture by Mai Serwa prison staff. Since inmates are rarely charged or sentenced, imprisonment at Mai Serwa is often a de facto life sentence.”

Christian prisoners at Mai Serwa are singled out for mistreatment on the basis of their religion, the factsheet reports.

“Former inmates report prison guards using torture to attempt to force Christians to renounce their faith. One recounts being pressured to sign a document saying she ‘would neither preach, praise, sing, nor spread the gospel,’” the factsheet states.

Individuals imprisoned at Mai Serwa for their faith include 15 members of the Christian Mahalian praise group who were imprisoned for an “illegal church gathering” after they recorded religious songs and attempted to post them online.

Scores of Jehovah’s Witnesses also have been imprisoned at Mai Serwa. They include Henok Ghebru, incarcerated for conscientious objection, who has been denied medical treatment.

Evin Prison in Iran

Sixty percent of the Christians detained in Iran are held at Evin Prison, a facility built in Tehran more than 50 years ago to hold political dissidents.

As in the case of Mai Serwa Prison in Eritrea, Christian former prisoners of Evin Prison report harassment by guards, as well as pressure to make false confessions to participating in illegal religious activities.

“An Armenian Christian woman reported that in 2022, an interrogator at Evin sexually assaulted and disparaged her for not wearing hijab on account of her non-Muslim religious identity,” the commission factsheet reports.

“In April 2025, a convert to Christianity who was recently released from Ervin reported that in late 2023 or early 2024, an interrogator at Evin tried to pressure him to sign a legal commitment to cease his religious activities.”

Establecimiento Penitenciario Integral de Mujeres in Nicaragua

Former inmates of Establecimiento Penitenciario Integral de Mujeres in Nicaragua—ironically also known as “La Esperanza” or “the hope”—report “torture, denial of adequate medical care, rodent and insect infestations, inadequate protection from other inmates, and sexual assault,” the commission factsheet states.

Eleven leaders of Mountain Gateway Church were arrested in December 2023 and spuriously charged with money laundering and organized crime, the factsheet reports. At La Esperanza and La Modelo prisons, they reportedly were denied access to Bibles and medication before being deported to Guatemala.

“In January 2025, officials at La Esperanza Prison severely restricted outdoor access for inmates who prayed out loud,” the factsheet states. “The inmates had been beaten during interrogations and denied access to Bibles.”

Dhanban Prison in Saudi Arabia

In recent years, reports of mistreatment of inmates imprisoned at Dhanban Prison in Saudi Arabia for their religious beliefs have included torture resulting in death, the commission factsheet stated.

Raif Badawi, who was imprisoned for allegedly insulting Islam, conducted a hunger strike to protest his mistreatment, including denial of access to crucial medicine.

Although Badawi eventually was released, his attorney, Waleed Abu al-Khair, remains in prison.

“Officials at Dhanban Prison placed al-Khair in solitary confinement, denied him contact with family, and subjected him to torture,” the factsheet stated.

Women who were arrested for peaceful protests have been imprisoned, sexually assaulted and tortured. The factsheet reports officials taunted the women during the encounters by asking, “Where is your Lord to protect you?”

Ovadan-Depe Prison in Turkmenistan

Former inmates who were imprisoned at Ovadan-Depe Prison in Turkmenistan report “egregious conditions, including lack of sufficient food, mass beatings, and other forms of torture,” the commission factsheet states. Some inmates report being held in five-foot-tall “hunchback cells” where they are unable to stand upright.

Several inmates are charged with being “Wahhabi” Muslims—an offense that carries a six-year sentence in Turkmenistan.

“However, the charge is often used against people regardless of their actual beliefs or activity, including a Protestant Christian in 2024,” the factsheet states.

In light of “systemic and egregious” restrictions on freedom of religion, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom calls on the heads of U.S. government agencies to “raise cases involving individuals imprisoned because of their religion with foreign counterparts.” The factsheet also urges U.S. diplomates to “seek to meet with imprisoned religious leaders.”

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS)—African Christian leaders attending a conference with faith-based health organizations in late November called for countries on the continent to do more to replace U.S. Agency for International Development funds cut by the Trump administration.

 “We don’t have to wait until the taps are finally locked in Europe and America,” said Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto, in Nigeria.

Kukah spoke at the Nov. 27 closing press conference for the gathering. While African leaders appreciate foreign support, “it shouldn’t be an excuse for us not doing the things we need to do in Africa,” the bishop said.

“We need to begin to raise resources in our own countries to fill up the gap,” warned Francis Mkandawire, general secretary of the Evangelical Association of Malawi, who condemned the idea of “business as usual.”

“There’s fatigue out there, and it’s affecting us already,” Mkandawire said.

Devote 15 percent of budgets to health sector

The conference, “One Faith, One Voice: A Shared Commitment to Health and Wholeness in Africa,” was attended by some 50 Catholic and Protestant representatives from 10 African countries, including women and youth leaders and the heads of Christian health associations.

The leaders urged their governments to make good on the 2001 Abuja Declaration, an agreement in which the 55 African Union countries made it a goal to allocate 15 percent of their budgets to the health sector. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report showed only two of the signers were meeting the goal in 2021.

The conference, called to discuss the health of the region amid a crisis of shrinking resources and a growing need, was organized by the Africa Christian Health Associations Platform, the All Africa Conference of Churches and Christian Connections for International Health.

For years, faith-based health networks have helped to coordinate the work of thousands of local health institutions, becoming trusted partners in providing relief and treatment for deadly diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

Those organizations had long received funding from the U.S. government, delivered through grants and cooperative agreements from USAID and the 22-year-old President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.

Cuts seriously affect health workers

But in January, President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on funding, pending a review and realignment of foreign assistance with his America First policy. The European Union also announced reductions in contributions to foreign assistance.

The abrupt stoppage of the funding has had a grave impact on the organizations’ work, the participants said.

“We have been impacted by the cuts, and the impact includes on our health workers, on service delivery for HIV, for tuberculosis, for malaria,” Nkatha Njeru, CEO of the Africa Christian Health Associations Platform, told reporters.

“We have patients who have been receiving care that now have to seek care in places where the health workers are no longer available in the numbers they were,” Njeru said.

His organization brings together 40 national associations in 32 sub-Saharan African countries and manages 10,000 health care facilities. Delivering 70 percent of services in some countries, the organization reaches more than half a billion people.

“We continue to feel the impact on community programming as well, where services that were available to people in the community are no longer available. … We also have impact on supply chain in many areas as well,” she said.

Without USAID support, said the participants at the conference, lives are being lost to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as health facilities run short of supplies and health workers go unpaid.

Community-led outreach cut

Karen Sichinga, CEO of the Churches Health Association of Zambia, said U.S. funding for essential AIDS drugs delivered by the organization is continuing, and the organization had been buying and distributing antiretroviral drugs to 700 hospitals in parts of the country.

But financial support for community-led outreach, crucial in mobilizing and ensuring treatment adherence, was ended, Sichinga said.

“When you cut community-led activities, you can’t expect to achieve much, because you need to mobilize communities toward treatment,” she said.

“We have treatment adherents, particularly the adolescents, who are becoming tired. Some of them are actually saying, ‘Why me?’ And these would be the adolescents who were born with HIV infection. And they’re saying, ‘It’s not my fault.’”

Njeru said the faith leaders are aware that teams from the U.S. State Department have been negotiating bilateral health arrangements with many of the African countries, and the faith sector has been asked to join those conversations.

Engage the faith sector

“Our plea to the State Department of the U.S. government is that they continue to engage the faith sector substantially, so that we can help our specific governments to continue providing health care to our citizens,” she said.

The conversations are at various stages in different countries, according to Njeru.

“Our plea is being heard in some countries, but in other countries, we still need to continue to talk to both our governments and the State Department to understand why the faith sector needs to be engaged substantially,” she said.

The faith leaders said they are not sitting idle. In a statement released at the end of the meeting, they committed to deepening collaboration with national governments, the private sector and international partners.

The clerics called for more government investment in health, which they called a moral and spiritual priority. They also urged African governments to crack down on corruption, citing reports of staggering amounts of funds being sent by politicians and businessmen to European banks and investments.

Kukah challenged the political leaders in Africa to join the search for local funding, saying the faith-based organizations and institutions need their help.

“The question is: What are we doing in Africa?” said Kukah. “But there needs to be greater collaboration, because the church has only a moral voice that it can add.”

Nigeria’s president responded to a surge in violence and abductions by declaring a nationwide security emergency, ordering the massive recruitment and deployment of law enforcement officers and armed forces personnel.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued the declaration Nov. 26, the same day the Anglican Communion of Nigeria confirmed Edwin Achi—a priest who was kidnapped by Fulani assailants Oct. 28—died in captivity.

Achi was abducted along with his wife and daughter from the village of Nissi in Kaduna State. Kidnappers demanded 600 million naira—more than $400,000—in ransom.

“We pray for the release of his wife and daughter still in the hands of kidnappers,” Anglican leaders said in a public statement.

Recruiting police and military personnel

As part of his declaration of a national security emergency, Tinubu ordered the police to recruit 20,000 officers, in addition to 30,000 he had authorized earlier, and to use National Youth Service Corps camps as training depots.

He also reiterated a previous order withdrawing officers from guarding VIPs and giving them “crash training” to prepare them for deployment to “security-challenged areas.”

Additionally, Tinubu authorized the Department of State Security to recruit and deploy specially trained forest guards to “flush out the terrorists and bandits” hiding in dense vegetation.

“My fellow Nigerians, this is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” Tinubu stated. “The times require all hands on deck. As Nigerians, we should all get involved in securing our nation.”

Dramatic reversal for administration

The Nigerian president’s declaration of a “national emergency” represents a dramatic reversal for an administration that previously characterized violence as localized in a few isolated regions within the country, said Gideon Para-Mallam, an evangelical pastor and peace advocate in Nigeria.

While he welcomed the president’s acknowledgement of a national emergency, Para-Mallam insisted Tinubu should have issued the declaration on May 29, 2023, the day he was sworn into office.

For years, the federal government in Nigeria has followed a “policy of denial when it comes to the persecution and the killings of Christians in Nigeria,” Para-Mallam said.

He noted the pastor and his wife of Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ebija, a town in the Yagaba West local government area of Nigeria’s Kogi State, were kidnapped along with several other worshippers during a church service on Nov. 30.

Even with the presidential declaration of a national emergency, “the situation remains dicey and unpredictable,” Para-Mallam said.

‘Challenging moment’ for Nigeria

In his public declaration, Tinubu commended the security agencies who collaborated to secure the release of 24 kidnapped schoolgirls in Kebbi and 38 members of the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara State.

The church members were abducted Nov. 18 during a thanksgiving service in Eruku. The worshippers were kept in an undisclosed hotel for several days undergoing medical examinations after their release.

“We will continue to sustain the efforts to rescue the remaining students of Catholic School in Niger State and other Nigerians still being held hostage,” he pledged.

Tinubu also commended armed forces personnel, acknowledging it is “a challenging moment for our nation and for the military institution itself.”

“I charge you to remain resolute, to restore peace across all theaters of operation, and to uphold the highest standards of discipline and integrity,” Tinubu stated. “There must be no compromise, no collusion and no negligence.”

The president pledged support both for the nation’s armed forces and for “state governments which have set up security outfits to safeguard their people from the terrorists bent on disrupting our national peace.”

He urged Nigeria’s National Assembly to review laws to “allow states that require state police to establish them.”

Instructions for schools and places of worship

Joseph John Hayab, a Baptist pastor and chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern states and Federal Capital territory, called the presidential declaration “a welcome development and a move in the right direction.”

Recruiting additional law enforcement and military personnel is appropriate—provided they are “well-trained, better equipped and motivated to do their work,” Hayab said.

In his declaration, Tinubu said: “States should rethink establishing boarding schools in remote areas without adequate security. Mosques and churches should constantly seek police and other security protection when they gather for prayers, especially in vulnerable areas.”

Churches are “helping to provide schools in many rural communities,” Hayab noted.

“It is not good for government to discourage the church from establishing schools in rural areas,” he said. “Instead, as the church provides schools, government should ensure those schools and the children enjoy the protection of the government.”

Pointing to the volatile Middle Belt of Nigeria and conflict between Fulani Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers, Tinubu urged herders to “end open grazing and surrender illegal weapons.”

Regarding violence in that region, Para-Mallam said: “Today, the evil triumvirate of Boko Haram, bandits and armed Fulani herdsmen are killing Nigerians with reckless abandon. The armed Fulani herdsmen are engaging in what one might identify now as nomadic jihadism.”

Need to ‘win citizens’ trust’

The greatest challenge the federal government faces in combating violence in Nigeria is gaining the trust of the general population, Hayab said.

“Any security emergency that does not win citizens’ trust will not be effective,” he said. “The most important war to win first is the trust from citizens.”

Wissam al-Saliby, president of the 21Wilberforce human rights organization, reported several Christian sources in Nigeria independently shared a similar message.

Some Nigerians fear the military has been infiltrated by terrorist groups, he noted. Others wonder if politicians will use the recruiting of military personnel and law enforcement officers to reward “their people.”

Suggestions they offered included ensuring transparency in the screening of applicants and creating state police who are answerable to state governors rather than to centralized federal authority.

Ultimately, al-Saliby said, a security response never is “the solution” in itself. Rather, he said, “it needs to be part of a bigger effort that includes economic reforms and solutions, and community peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts.”

WASHINGTON (BP)—Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela form a Latin American “authoritarian triad” where leaders exert religious persecution to maintain governmental control, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported Nov. 18.

“In line with the authoritarian governance models of the three regimes, religious entities face persecution for any activity deemed to undermine state power and influence,” the commission wrote in an update on persecution there.

“In all three countries, the ruling party fully controls government functions and violates human rights to subdue opposition.”

Nicaragua and Cuba are the leading aggressors in the region, the commission report said, citing among many transgressions Nicaragua’s July arrest of evangelical Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and seven of his friends and family, one of whom died of unknown causes while in custody; and both nations’ weaponization of citizenship in stripping certain religious leaders of such status.

Citizenship revoked

Nicaragua has stripped at least 450 perceived opponents of citizenship since early 2023, the commission said. That includes people affiliated with the evangelical Mountain Gateway ministry based in Texas, several Catholic laypeople and others.

Cuba was inspired by Nicaragua, the commission report said, in passing the 2024 Citizenship Law that allows Cuba to revoke the citizenship of those who engage in acts “contrary to the political, economic, or social interest” of the nation.

In Venezuela, the commission reported governmental threats to religious leaders not deemed supportive of President Nicolas Maduro, whose latest election the international community widely considers fraudulent.

In January, hooded Venezuelan state security members captured Carlos José Correa Barros, a Christian journalist and director of the human rights group Espacio Público, and held him in a hidden location for a week before releasing him after a nine-day confinement, the commission update said.

The commission also noted Maduro’s launch of a refurbishment program called “My Well Equipped Church.” The report described it as “an aggressive strategy to secure evangelical support,” complete with cash stipends to 13,000 pastors.

The move copied Cuba’s mode of cultivating relationships with religious leaders willing to support the government, the commission report noted.

Surveillance, detention and control of messages

Broadly, the three nations persistently harass religious communities through surveillance, threats of imprisonment, arbitrary detentions and arrests, control of religious messages including sermons and public attacks.

The nations enact laws that unjustly restrict the activities and legal status of religious groups; practice favoritism in attempts to control messaging and deny religious freedom to prisoners.

The U.S. State Department in 2022 designated Cuba and Nicaragua Countries of Particular Concern for “engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended U.S. governmental responses in its 2025 Annual Report, including sanctions of those culpable in violations.

The 2025 annual report does not address Venezuela, but violations there and in Nicaragua are so widespread many consider them crimes against humanity, the commission said in its update.

Baptists in Africa called for “all parties concerned” about religious freedom and human rights in Nigeria to “embrace peace for the good of all.”

Meanwhile, some American evangelicals—including the interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission—endorsed a letter by a conservative group commending President Donald Trump for “placing all available Presidential action on the table to ensure that action is taken soon.”

In late October, Trump declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern—a designation reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.

On social media, Trump also indicated he instructed the Department of War to prepare for possible military intervention, going into Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing.”

Multiple human rights and global religious freedom organizations long had called for Nigeria to be designated as a CPC. However, some religious leaders registered serious concern about Trump’s threat of military action.

‘Embrace peace for the good of all’

On Nov. 7, the All Africa Baptist Fellowship—a transnational regional group affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance—released a public statement expressing “great concern about the ongoing global uproar regarding the largest black nation on earth, Nigeria.”

“To us in Africa and the Baptist family, the peace, stability, and prosperity of Nigeria is a blessing to the entire continent,” the AABF statement said. “We therefore appeal to all the parties concerned to embrace peace for the good of all.”

The fellowship—a network of 77 Baptist unions, conventions and associations representing 20 million Christians in 38 countries—expressed “great concern” about alleged violations of religious freedom and human rights in Nigeria.

The AABF called on “all the stakeholders to chart the paths that put a stop to the menace of religious crisis.”

Nigeria’s government “has the responsibility of securing the lives and properties of people of all faiths, including Christians,” the fellowship stated.

Actions must be ‘agreed upon and not imposed’

At the same time, without explicitly citing Trump’s threat of military action, the AABF stated: “The United States and Nigeria are two sovereign and independent nations.”

Therefore, the fellowship stated its belief that “any help offered to the latter be such that is mutually agreed upon and not imposed.”

The fellowship assured Nigerian Christians, particularly those who have been displaced, lost family members or suffered other severe hardship that “we stand with you in prayer.”

“To the perpetrators of this injustice, please, lay down your weapons and embrace peace,” the AABF statement urged. “Nigeria needs true peace. Africa needs stability. We are calling upon the name of Jesus Christ the giver of peace.”

Trump commended for ‘strong and decisive action’

One week after the AABF issued its statement, the CPAC Foundation and its First Freedom Movement sent a letter to the White House, thanking Trump for his “strong and decisive action” in designating Nigeria as a CPC.

“We commend your recognition of the major threat and devastation facing Christians in Nigeria from radical Islamists and a government that has taken little action to protect them, as well as your clear-eyed statements placing all available Presidential actions on the table to ensure that action is taken soon,” the letter states.

“You saw the evidence, you listened to the cries of the persecuted, and you acted.”

Calling on Nigeria to demonstrate improvement

Citing the “targeting of Christians in horrifying numbers,” the letter asserts Nigeria should remain on the U.S. Department of State’s CPC list until it demonstrates improvement in four areas:

• Increased security for Christian populations, particularly in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, “with the deployment of additional military and law enforcement units trained to be proactive in fighting militants.”
• “Ending impunity for those responsible for attacks against Christians, and ensuring that attackers are fully and quickly prosecuted.”
• “Facilitating the safe return of internally displaced persons to their homelands, and assisting in the rebuilding and security of these communities.”
• “Ceasing enforcement and initiating the repeal of the country’s Sharia blasphemy laws, releasing individuals imprisoned or detained for blasphemy-related offenses, and prosecuting mob attacks.”

While the letter focuses primarily on Nigeria, it also commends Trump for taking a “strong stance to defend all persecuted Christians against grave atrocities and serious violations of their God-given right to religious freedom.”

“While the U.S. should defend religious freedom for all people, we agree that the threat to Christians worldwide is particularly severe, that Christians are the most persecuted religious group on the planet, and that the scourge of the persecution of Christians has been ignored by too many for too long,” the letter states.

Endorsed by conservative Christian leaders

The letter originated with the CPAC Foundation—the organization behind the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. It carried the signatures of Matt Schlapp, chair of CPAC, and Mercedes Schlapp, CPAC senior fellow.

More than two dozen others endorsed the letter. They included Gary Hollingsworth, interim president of the ERLC; Samuel Rodriguez, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Troy Miller, president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters.

While the Nigerian government acknowledges violence within the nation’s borders, officials assert it is not based on religion, and they attribute it to extremist groups.

A high-ranking Nigerian official told the Baptist Standard the presence of violence in his country is perpetrated by “some extremists.” He strongly rejected the assertion Christians are targeted.

Mohammed Idris Malagi, minister of information and national orientation for Nigeria, insisted: “It is sad that this has been characterized as a religious conflict. We don’t believe that it is. It never has been a religious conflict. It actually is an extremist conflict.”

Russian courts have banned at least 10 unregistered Baptist congregations from meeting without state permission, a Norway-based human rights organization reported.

Six of the 10 lawsuits against Council of Churches Baptist religious communities have been filed in the Krasnodar Region of Southern Russia, Forum 18 news service reported in early November.

The Council of Churches Baptist formed six decades ago in opposition to Soviet religious restrictions. Unregistered congregations affiliated with the council often meet in private homes—or houses of prayer—on private land.

The council asserts the Russian Constitution, the 1997 Religion Law and international human rights laws all provide them the right to meet without government involvement and state registration.

In practice, however, prosecutors and judges in Russia have broad discretion in how they enforce laws regarding religious activities.

Russia’s Religion Law requires all unregistered religious associations to notify authorities of their existence and activities.

A religious community’s “failure to submit notification” of its activities “cannot in itself be grounds for prohibiting the activities of such a group,” a December 2016 Supreme Court resolution stated.

However, the same resolution allows the government to restrict “activities prohibited by law, or in violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation” or “other repeated or gross violations of the law.”

Alleged ‘illegal missionary activity’

As a result, activities of unregistered religious communities often are prosecuted under Russia’s Administrative Code. Administration prosecutions often are pursued for alleged “unlawful missionary activity.”

Among other examples Forum 18 reported, a September 30 court ruling in Armavir City upheld a prosecutor’s request that activities of the local Council of Churches Baptist congregation be prohibited.

The court ruling stated local Federal Security Service operatives observed “the systemic conduct of missionary religious events” by the congregation.

Pastor Vladimir Popov insisted his congregation has “not committed gross violations of the norms of current legislation that entails a ban on carrying out activities.” He further asserted the prosecutor “is not permitted to interfere in the activities of a religious association.”

In a July report on “Russia’s Persecution of Religious Groups and FoRB Actors,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited the Russian government’s closing of a different Baptist house of prayer for alleged “illegal missionary activity.”

Last year, Russian courts considered 431 cases of religion law violations—many related to alleged “illegal missionary activities”—resulting in fines totaling more than 4.7 million rubles (more than $58,000), the report said.

Since 2017, the commission has recommended Russia be named a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations. The U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a CPC in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In its latest annual report, the commission urged the State Department not only to continue to designate Russia as a CPC, but also impose targeted sanctions on Russian government agencies and officials responsible for religious freedom violations.

The Baptist World Alliance announced the appointment of Valérie Duval-Poujol from France as the first BWA ambassador for standing against gender-based violence.

Approved unanimously by the BWA trustee committee, the role includes a five-year term of service and membership within the BWA Leadership Council.

“The BWA celebrates Valérie and her historic appointment to this position which demonstrates our commitment as a global Baptist family to respond to this worldwide issue,” said Elijah Brown, BWA general secretary and CEO.

“I am grateful for Dr. Duval-Poujol’s years of faithful engagement and advocacy, and I look forward to how God will continue to work through her in this new role.”

BWA ambassadors serve as volunteer leaders who provide pastoral presence, specialized expertise and global representation in advancing strategic ministry priorities.

Working under the guidance of the BWA general secretary and alongside a designated staff liaison, ambassadors serve as catalysts for strengthening relationships, equipping churches and elevating the global witness of the Baptist family.

Advocate for gender justice

Duval-Poujol, a theologian and Bible translator, brings years of experience and passion to this role. She has long been an advocate for gender justice and launched the gender-based violence advocacy initiative known as the Red Chair Project.

Typically implemented annually during the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Red Chair Project involves reserving an empty red chair in a public place alongside information about domestic abuse and violence against women. The empty chair symbolizes the many women who have been killed through acts of gender-based violence.

The French government awarded her the National Order of Merit in 2023.

 “I thank BWA leadership for showing their commitment to stand against the terrible plague of gender-based violence through this appointment,” Duval-Poujol said.

“Together, we will fight against this as a witness to God’s love and justice for this broken world. I ask the BWA family to pray for this position and to support it in all ways possible.”

Involved with BWA Women

Duval-Poujol has been involved in various BWA Women advocacy efforts, including serving as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

She also was co-leader of numerous BWA Women workshops related to domestic abuse, presented research as a panelist at the 2025 Baptist Women’s Summit, and helped launch the Stand Against Domestic Violence resource hub.

“It has been a profound honor to work alongside Dr. Duval-Poujol to advance our shared commitment to raise awareness, offer support and provide resources that stand against the scourge of gender-based violence,” said Merritt Johnston, BWA Women executive director.

“Her passion, wisdom and collaborative spirit make her an instrumental voice in the world to address this critical issue. I look forward to continuing this important advocacy together as she steps into this new role with the potential for even greater global impact for the glory of God and the good of women across the globe.”

Committed to BWA global ministry

Drawing from her personal passion for the Bible and her educational background that includes doctorates in history of religions and theology, Duval-Poujol is the author of several books and serves on various theological faculties.

In her work as a Bible translator, she was also the chief editor for the revision of the French Bible Nouvelle Français courant.

Within BWA’s global ministry, she has been a presenter at numerous BWA and European Baptist Federation events and served as vice chair of the Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity from 2020 to 2025.

She also represented the BWA as a fraternal delegate at the Synod on Family in 2013 and the Synod on Synodality in 2023 and 2024.

Duval-Poujol also serves in her local church alongside her husband who is a French Baptist minister.

Her commissioning will take place in March 2026 when the BWA Leadership Council convenes in Falls Church, Va., with global leaders in attendance from all six of the BWA’s regional fellowships, commissions and standing networks.