Religious persecution in China and North Korea, restrictions on religious freedom in dozens of countries and the continuing threat of violence at the hands of religious fundamentalists belonging to a variety of faiths all have worsened since 2018, said Aid to the Church in Need, a papal foundation and Catholic charity.
The problems “have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. States have used the insecurity to increase control over their citizens, and nonstate actors have taken advantage of the confusion to recruit, expand and provoke wider humanitarian crises,” said an analysis publi-shed with ACN’s annual report, “Religious Freedom in the World.”
The report, released April 20, said outright persecution exists in “26 countries which are home to 3.9 billion people or just over half — 51% — of the world’s population.”
In addition to China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, the list includes a dozen African countries, such as Somalia, Libya, Nigeria, Congo and Mozambi-que, as well as Myanmar because of its treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the predominantly Buddhist nation.