(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The 2024 World Watch List (WWL) that was published on Jan. 17, 2024, by Open Doors Christian charity revealed that the persecution of Christians skyrocketed all around the world last year.
The list noted that more than 365 million Christians all around the world suffer “high levels” of persecution and discrimination for their faith, which means that one in seven Christians are persecuted because of their religious beliefs.
WWL discovered that 4,998 Christians were murdered because they were practicing their faith during 2023, which is the number of only those cases that were reported.
From 2022 to 2023, attacks on the homes of Christians nearly quadrupled (+371%), rising from 4,547 to 21,431, and the number of attacks on churches, Christian schools and hospitals jumped sevenfold, from 2,110 in 2022 to 14,766 in 2023.
In addition to that, Christians who were not murdered suffered nonetheless, with 42,849 of them experiencing physical violence or death threats during 2023 and 278,716 of them being driven from their homes or forced to go underground, which represents more than double the figure from 2022 (124,310).
The very first place on the list of 50 most dangerous countries for Christians is North Korea, which also took the number one spot on last year’s list by WWL.
An officially atheist country that is run by a brutal communist regime, North Korea is incredibly hostile to Christians, with the organization noting that being discovered as a Christian in North Korea is considered an equivalent to a death sentence.
Those Christians who are not murdered on the spot are sent to labor camps where they spend the rest of their lives as political criminals. In addition to that, it is nearly impossible for believers to gather and worship the Lord. As expected, the communist state considers the possession of the Bible a serious crime as well.
Somalia, a country that ranks second on the list, also persecutes Christians by “identifying and eliminating Christian leaders” and murdering regular Christians on the spot as well.
Libya got the third position on the list because the absence of a single central government to impose law and order in the country allowed Islamist groups to murder and torture Christians without any consequences.
