A damning assessment. Tuesday January 14, during the presentation of the latest “World Index of Christian Persecution”, updated every year since the first publication in 1993, the Protestant association Open Doors announced the closure of all evangelical Protestant churches in Algeria. “ The 47 evangelical Christian Protestant churches in Algeria are closed or under seal “, declared Guillaume Guennec, head of the NGO, from Paris, whose remarks are relayed by Le Figaro. Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, vice-president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), was even sentenced to a year in prison last May for having celebrated a cult ” unauthorized “, he added. At that time, only four of its religious buildings remained open to the public.
As early as 2019, Pastor Ourahmane had already warned about the situation, but since then, conditions have worsened for the 60,800 evangelical Christians and 42,900 Pentecostals in the country. “ This is the end of an exception. Algeria was the only country in this region of northern Africa where converted Christians could meet in their own churches “, explained Guillaume Guennec, specifying that “ around twenty Christian converts are currently struggling with the law ».
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While the 7,000 Catholic churches in the territory, attended “ only » by expatriates, remain open, Protestant churches, “ made up of Algerians converted from Islam ”, are “ more tolerated » and must now operate clandestinely in the face of tougher authorities.
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380 million Christians exposed to persecution
In detail, the persecution of Christians is also intensifying in sub-Saharan Africa, where jihadist violence continues to wreak havoc. Nigeria holds the record for the number of Christians killed with 3,100 deaths in 2024, according to Open doors. « Radicalized Fulani militias now cause more casualties than terrorist groups like Boko Haram “, says the report, referring to the Easter massacres in Kaduna State. More generally, 4,476 Christians were killed across the world in 2024.
The Index also lists 7,679 churches destroyed, damaged or closed around the world, with a record in Rwanda (4,000). An overall increase of 25% in persecution over ten years is noted: 380 million Christians face discrimination in 78 countries, i.e. “ one in seven Christians in the world ».
