“It’s really chilling, that’s for sure,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. “The Congo, despite all of its challenges and difficulties for now decades, has largely been known as the most Christian country in the entire continent of Africa. More Christians living there than almost anywhere in the world, and so you’ve got a very Christian country that is being targeted.”

(Photo courtesy of Wendyfleury/Pixabay)

The assaults have been linked to Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), a militant Muslim group originating in Uganda.

Kelley explains, “They recognize that [in] eastern Congo…it’s so remote, there’s very little security to protect these areas, so they target this area.”

The militant group has a dire message for “worshipers of the cross” – convert, be subjugated, or die.

“They are coming in as a jihadist force, forcing people to convert. If they don’t convert, they destroy everything, they run them out, they’re killing people savagely. It’s just a complete intimidation tactic.”

Kelley also says there seem to be ulterior motives to ISCAP’s interest in the eastern DRC region.

“Congo is considered one of the wealthiest countries in the world from a natural resource standpoint, yet the people live in abject poverty. So you get these bad actors who are coming from neighboring countries like Uganda [and] Rwanda that are dominating and illegally exploiting the land of the most valuable resource they have, [and] taking it illegally. It’s just a tragedy.”

Treasure audio Bible distribution in DRC. (Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations, formerly World Mission)

You can encourage our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in the DRC.

“We just need to be praying and lifting up these people, but also keep our eyes open for opportunities to stand with them in a practical way.”

Pray for displaced Christian families to find safety and shelter. Ask God to strengthen persecuted believers in the DRC. Pray also that Muslim extremists would ultimately meet Jesus Christ and surrender their lives to Him.

Header photo: Representative photo of Congolese village. (Photo courtesy of Kudra_Abdulaziz via Pixabay)

He shares one story of an 18-year-old Sudanese woman who found Christ.

“We have translation ministries in 13 unreached people group languages, and each one is led by a graduate from our school of mission. And so one of the leaders–first believer in his tribe—his sister found his Bible and secretly began to read it and, through several months, on her own, made a decision to follow Christ.”

When the young woman’s family found out, she was beaten, locked in the house without a phone, and told if she did not recant her new faith, she would be disowned by the family and possibly killed. She managed to get out of the house and went to a church pastored by another leader from the same ministry as her brother. From there, a partner ministry, Samaritan’s Purse, was able to get her to safety.

“Our team sat down with her and said, ‘We really want you to think about this decision and the consequences, because it is life and death.’ They were very serious and wanted to make sure she knew what she was doing, and she said, ‘Now that I know God, they can take my life. I will not turn back.’”

She is currently living with female students of the ministry’s school of mission and taking Bible classes.

The ministry John serves continues to see persecution. Indigenous Gospel workers have been shot and had their small businesses destroyed—“And it just goes on after that,” he says. “But in the context of that, there are baptisms in the face of persecution, because the Spirit of God is moving.”

According to John, Muslims who are also fleeing from the war are taking note that it is often Christians who are bringing food and medical help, listening to survivors, and offering hope. In one refugee camp where a Gospel worker was previously shot, a ministry leader and Christian convert has since been elected as the community leader.

“They said, ‘We want you, because you’re fair and because, although they’re different than us, you’ve brought people who have loved us.’ So God is doing amazing things.”

Continue to pray for the safety of Gospel workers in Sudan and for the work the Holy Spirit is doing there.

Header photo by Mohamed Zekry via Pexels

One incident in late April saw seven Christian farmers killed by Muslim Somali herdsmen in Kwa Kamari in Mwingi North, Kitui County. A few days later, gunmen also killed a local child. 

Residents in the Mwingi area responded by blockading the Garissa-Mwingi highway in protest, calling for justice against the suspected attackers.

These are only two incidents in a string of retaliatory attacks where both Somalis and local residents have suffered loss or death. Government leaders say the escalating situation should be declared a national emergency.

City scene in Nairobi, Kenya (Photo courtesy of Nicholas Gray/Unsplash)

To Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations, the Church in majority-Christian Kenya has a clear mission. 

“There are all kinds of Christian churches — hundreds and hundreds of evangelical, amazing churches in Nairobi that really need to begin mobilizing and sending workers to the east,” he says.

Many Somali Muslims live in eastern Kenya, which borders Somalia. That neighboring country is where the Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab is based. 

“All of the tensions in Kenya are happening along its eastern border (which is entirely with Somalia) and its northern border (which is with Ethiopia and Sudan). Those are the entire areas where the unreached people groups live in Kenya,” says Kelley. 

“These attacks and tensions that we’re hearing are happening on the road that goes to Somalia. But now that it’s creeping closer to Nairobi, all of a sudden people are starting to raise the alarm and having concern.”

Pray for the Kenyan Church to rally on mission for Somali Muslims. Kelley says that this people group is less than 1 percent Christian. 

“Kenya has every opportunity to reach the Somali people inside of Kenya with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” says Kelley. “And what that will do is trigger a movement of Somalis who then go back to their country, taking the gospel with them.” 

Header photo of children in Mwingi, Kenya (Photo courtesy of Oscar Omondi via Unsplash).

Mali Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga is encouraging citizens “not to give in to panic.”

The attackers were al-Qaeda-linked Islamists and Tuareg separatists – two distinct groups united in their goal to destabilize the government.

Flag of Mali (Stock photo courtesy of Aboodi Vesakaran via Pexels)

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA (VOM) says, “That’s what we saw over the weekend was coordinated attacks between these two groups in four different parts of Mali all at the same time, including an assassination of the defense minister. So a very significant, very coordinated effort that really shows the level of cooperation between these two groups has grown significantly.”

Mali is roughly 95% Muslim, and extremist factions there want to set up an Islamic caliphate.

Meanwhile, Tuareg separatists have a different objective.

“The Tuareg is a nomadic tribal group, [and] there are many Tuareg in the country of Mali,” Nettleton explains. “They want a separate area. They want a…Tuareg nation, so they are fighting to carve out part of Mali to be independent.”

Though their end goals differ, the two groups have joined forces – proof that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Together, they are driving a wave of chaos and fear across Mali.

Although Mali’s national military is responding, civilians and minorities will likely be caught in the crosshairs.

Pray for Mali. (Photo courtesy of VOM USA)

According to the 2026 World Watch List, Mali ranks 15th among the worst countries for Christian persecution. Primary persecution threats come from Islamic oppression, organized corruption, and crime.

“Christians are only 3% of the population in Mali, so they are a small minority. They face pressure. Often, the first line of persecution is your own family members if you are a follower of Christ, if you leave Islam to follow Jesus,” says Nettleton.

“So [be] praying for them to stand strong in faith, praying for God’s protection over them. I think we also want to pray for some stability in Mali not only because it’s affecting Christians in Mali. It’s affecting Christians in Burkina Faso and Niger as well. [Pray] for some pathway to a stable government and a stable nation that would certainly be a blessing to Christians there, as well as to Muslims who would like to live in safety as well.”

Find more ways to support Christians in Mali at persecution.com.

Header image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay.

Samuel* with Redemptive Stories says multiple reports are circulating, but the basic outline is this: Muslim men were allegedly harassing a young woman in the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah on Friday. When men in the community came to her defense, it quickly escalated. 

“There were reprisal attacks on the people who were harassing her,” says Samuel. “Then the group that was harassing the young lady attacked a Christian village.”

A girl in Syria (Photo courtesy of Ahmed Akacha via Pexels)

The National reports that on Saturday, gunmen entered Suqaylabiyah and damaged businesses, cars, and a statue of the Virgin Mary. Thankfully, no casualties were reported. 

In response to the attack, Syria’s Greek Orthodox and Catholic patriarchs have issued a joint statement: Easter this year will be celebrated “only with prayer inside the churches.” Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji was careful to say that it was not a decision made out of fear. 

Samuel puts it this way: “Not the whole of Syria, but a lot of Christian communities are standing with this one community that was attacked. In solidarity, they’re limiting their celebrations external to the church over Holy Week.”

Samuel says that especially in Syria, Easter is normally a time of great celebration, with marching bands and songs of lament and joy.  That makes this restrained observance of Easter “a sad realization of the pressures that Syrian Christians face these days,” he says.

Please pray for believers in Syria. Ask God to bless them in unexpected ways this Easter, even though it won’t look like what they had hoped. 

“As the government becomes more restrictive in Syria, [pray] that the Church will just continue to be a bright light in the midst of that,” says Samuel. “[Pray] that Christians would not leave the region, because the more Christians leave, the less the voice of the Church can be powerful to communicate hope.” 

Header photo: Syria (Stock photo courtesy of Abd Alrhman Al Darra)

Starting in the early hours of Saturday, January 31, fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) killed nearly 50 people in coordinated attacks across the province.

Pakistani security forces intervened swiftly, killing 145 fighters from the BLA. The provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, says this number of fighters killed was the highest in decades.

(Stock photo courtesy of Beebagar Baloch via Unsplash)

Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan in 1948. It has seen multiple separatist movements since then. (More on that here.)

Unrest in Balochistan happens for several reasons, says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. “It happens to be an area that’s very rich in minerals and resources, and the people of Balochistan have forever been frustrated, feeling like the government — the capital of Pakistan, [Islamabad] — are the main benefactors of their wealth,” he explains. 

Of Pakistan’s ten poorest districts, seven are in Balochistan. Kelley describes it as “lack of infrastructure, lack of education, lack of medical opportunities.” As local people see their homeland’s resources being exploited, “there are these sort of ‘freedom fighters’ that have emerged over the years that have gone toe-to-toe with the Pakistani military in opposition,” he says of the BLA. 

Is there any good in unrest? 

“Any time that there’s instability and chaos in majority Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim environments, it creates an opportunity for the gospel,” Kelley says, “because the people are suffering. You begin to question and look at your worldview and say, ‘Is this really all that life has for me? Is this the hope?’”

In a world full of political and national conflicts, it’s tempting to shrug off news that isn’t in our own backyards. But God calls His people to look at the world with the Great Commission in mind.

Quetta, Pakistan (Stock photo courtesy of Syed Aoun Abbas via Unsplash)

“They say about 100% of the population is considered unreached. These are exclusively Muslim areas,” says Kelley about Balochistan Province. “The main people groups there are the Pashtun and Baloch people.”

Frontiers like this are exactly where the church needs to engage, he says. “We need to mobilize the Christian church in Pakistan into this area more strategically and intentionally. I believe that there’s going to be a gospel movement in Balochistan.”

You can be part of that push by praying for more gospel workers and partnering with Unknown Nations to help them support local believers on mission.

“Pray that the Lord raises up harvesters, laborers that will go into these areas — Pakistani nationals who can go into Balochistan and speak the languages,” says Kelley. 

Header photo: Ras Koh Hills, Kharan District, Balochistan Province, Pakistan (Stock photo courtesy of Muhammad Irfan Baloch)

“There is a lot more from the Allied Democratic Forces coming into Uganda and attacking.” 

In the East, it’s a different story. There, Muslim-majority communities team up against their Christian counterparts. Wesley says while the attacks were initially more verbal than physical, the intensity of violence is increasing. Reports indicate that attacks are especially ramping up against evangelists and recent converts. 

“Because that is the evidence of Christianity’s expression in those places,” Wesley says. “If the church was silent and was not evangelistic, then they would feel no threat.” 

Despite this, some Muslims are beginning to see the cracks in their cultural fortress; and those who do are stepping outside it. Choosing Christ over Islam means ostracization, threats, and sometimes even death. But Wesley says even this reality can serve as a confirmation for new believers. 

“They see that almost as a weakness of their faith and a strength of Christianity, and therefore they oppose it,” he explains. 

On the political front, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has pledged to uphold religious freedom in the country, and Wesley says that position is backed by policy. 

“Where there have been attacks, there are actual police reports that are written, and people have been arrested. So they are trying to prevent these things from taking place,” he says. 

Still, the situation is complex. According to a report from Open Doors International:

 “The Ugandan government’s increased surveillance and monitoring, in response to national security concerns, have added another layer of pressure on Christians. While the government’s actions are aimed at curbing Islamic extremism, they place Christians under further scrutiny, particularly in regions already fraught with religious tensions.”

Regardless of human leadership, Wesley says Christians will remain Kingdom-focused, as persecution is neither new nor unexpected for followers of Christ. The history of Uganda itself is peppered with martyrdom, Wesley says, and it’s a backdrop that fortifies believers. 

“In the understanding there, they recognize that they are going to suffer some persecution, but they’re not willing to let that prevent them from continuing their faith,” he says. 

As the church in Uganda continues to lift up the name of the Lord, would you lift up these brothers and sisters in prayer? 

Pray for the light to shine in the darkness and for the Holy Spirit to strengthen believers in love, faith, and endurance. Pray for a spirit of resilience, courage, and boldness amongst the Ugandan church, and pray that lost people would respond to the glorious hope and salvation of Jesus Christ.

Above: Ugandan community, courtesy of illustrate Digital UG via Pexels. Featured image: Ugandan church, courtesy of Fame of God Studios via Unsplash.

“Some government relief has gone into the mountains, but there are still people living in tents, and it’s cold. There’s snow in some regions,” says Patrick Anthony with FMI. 

The FMI team partners with a local ministry leader who lives just outside of the earthquake’s impact zone. He and another Christian brother have spent the last few months organizing and carrying out aid distributions to people in remote, hard-to-reach areas. 

But terrain hasn’t been the only difficulty. At one point during an attempted trip, the pastors were stopped from completing their journey by security forces who took issue with their Christian affiliation. 

After finding a workaround, they were able to continue, eventually connecting with locals and passing out used clothing items collected by local churches. The believers were also able to pray with the villagers and begin building relationships. 

“They said they were doing this in the spirit of Christmas,” Anthony says. 

While communities in this region are predominantly Muslim, several parents told ministry leaders they are only Muslim by ritual. When their children asked the visitors, Who is this Messiah? Is he Santa Claus?, the men were able to give a simple overview of the Gospel. 

Please pray for the local ministry leader leading this effort. Anthony says he is encouraged, as “now people want him to return and explain more.”

He and his fellow believers will need to be wise as they seek to do this, since security challenges are common across Morocco. Anthony says Christians there need to be careful to build trust slowly when engaging new people. 

“When they hear of someone who’s interested to learn more about the Gospel, they’ll meet with that person – three times, five times, ten times – before they invite that person to visit their fellowship” Anthony says. “It’s just common across Morocco that people try to infiltrate the church to turn people in and to get pastors and church people arrested.”

Please pray for discernment and open doors as mountain visits continue. 

“It sounds like God has opened up a tremendous door of opportunity for the Gospel in these places where people are still suffering from that earthquake a couple years ago,” Anthony says. 

Pray also for boldness, safety on dangerous Atlas Mountain roads, and wisdom for believers who must answer to authorities. Most of all, pray for the villagers: some who have never heard about Jesus but may now have that chance. 

View of Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Courtesy of Kaur Virunurm via Wikimedia Commons. Header photo: 2023 Earthquake damage; courtesy of Lucyin via Wikimedia Commons.

“It’s unclear how involved the government negotiations were,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations, “but there was definitely some pressure that was put on these kidnappers.” 

Kelley says the November 21 abduction is “an example of constant disruption of the gospel, because we regularly get calls [from indigenous missionary partners]where we have to emergency evacuate or pull people from one place to another.”

(Stock photo from Lagos, Nigeria courtesy of Doug Linstedt via Unsplash)

Despite the release of these 100 kidnapped children, the big-picture pattern in Nigeria remains the same. Groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants attack and abduct people at will. They often target Christians, who are considered soft targets. The government’s response to enforcing justice is lackluster.

The situation takes on further seriousness this Christmas, as memories of mass killings return. Two years ago on Christmas Eve, nearly 300 Christians across Plateau State were murdered.

Believers expect adversity this year, too. “That’s their life. That’s all they know,” Kelley says. “And they will not stop worshiping Jesus because of it [the danger].” 

Pray for God’s strength for Nigerian Christians and His mercy over their lives this Christmas. Pray for their enemies by name.

“In northern Nigeria, there are dozens of different people groups or nations — including the Fulani, the Hausa, and the Kanuri, that are all 99% Muslim,” says Kelley. “When Jesus said ‘Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers,’ we can inject the names Kanuri, Fulani and Hausa into that prayer, because those are the places and the nations that need laborers.”

Header photo courtesy of Moses Adeyemi via Unsplash.

On December 5, an unidentified man gunned Pastor Kamran Salamat down outside his home. The husband and father of three was leaving to take his daughter to college. He was still injured from a September attack. 

Nehemiah* with FMI says that tragedies like this cast a long shadow over the Christian community in Pakistan.

Person holding a Bible (Stock photo courtesy of Ivan Samkov via Pexels)

“Pastor Kamran was more than a preacher. He was a shepherd who walked closely with his people,” Nehemiah says. “He supported the poor, trained marginalized women in a sewing center, and shared Christ with boldness. His life embodied a sacrificial love. His death is painful, of course, and that reminds us that for many believers in Pakistan, the cost of discipleship is written in blood.”

Nehemiah says that FMI partners, pastors, disciple-makers, and evangelists “continue to serve under constant threat, often feeling as though they are walking on eggshells in neighborhoods where suspicion and hostility is never far away.” 

Christians make up only 1% of Pakistan’s approximately 253 million people. They suffer physical, social, and legal persecution, yet God gives them resilience. 

“I was talking to a member of the congregation of Pastor Kamran. He said that ‘Even in heartbreak, we hold this hope. The enemy can silence a voice, but he cannot stop the message. God is at work in Pakistan, and the light of Christ still breaks through.’”

Pray for comfort and grace over Kamran Salamat’s wife, children, and congregation. Pray for bold gospel witness to spread in Pakistan and change many people’s hearts, including Kamran’s attackers. 

“Please pray for supernatural protection, that God would be [gospel workers’] shield in a land where persecution is rising,” says Nehemiah. “Pray for wisdom, so that they may know when to speak, where to go, and how to shepherd their people safely.”

*Pseudonym

Header photo: A pastor (not Kamran Salamat) in Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI).