Henrietta Blyth writes: The wildfires in Los Angeles have dominated the headlines for more than a week. Around the world we have watched in horror at the speed with which huge flames have engulfed whole communities. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, often carrying only a handful of possessions. It feels apocalyptic, all too close to home, and everyone is talking about it.
There is also another displacement crisis on our planet. It has affected millions of people and, instead of days, this crisis has been going on for years. And virtually nobody is talking about it.
In my six years at Open Doors, I have been trying to wake people up to the unfolding catastrophe in Sub Saharan Africa. Islamist extremism is sweeping like wildfire across whole nations. Millions have been displaced, nearly half of them Christians. They have been threatened, killed, kidnapped, raped, robbed and terrorised. Their homes and villages have been burnt to the ground. They have swept up their children - often in the middle of the night - and fled for their lives. They too have lost everything.
Open Doors research estimates that the number of Christians displaced by Islamist extremists in sub-Saharan Africa is comparable to the populations of London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow combined. And it barely gets a mention in the mainstream media (Premier being an honorable exception).
This week we published news of Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List. It records a year of persecution and discrimination against Christians across the world. From this data, it ranks the nations where it’s hardest to be a Christian.
This year’s list makes for sobering reading. It records that more than 380 million Christians around the world face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. That’s a rise of 15 million since last year and represents 1 in 7 Christians globally. When I began work at Open Doors six years ago, the number was a ’mere’ 240 million. READ MORE...
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