This week in Parliament, Aid to the Church in Need launched their latest report, 'Persecuted and Forgotten?'
Fiona was privileged to speak at the event alongside report author, John Pontifex, Baroness Caroline Cox, and Bishop Jude Arogundade whose diocese in Nigeria was targeted by gunmen who killed more than 40 people at a packed Sunday service in June.
Tragically, Persecuted and Forgotten? found that in 75 percent of the 24 countries surveyed, oppression or persecution of Christians has increased. Africa saw a sharp rise in terrorist violence from non-state militants – with more than 7,600 Nigerian Christians reportedly murdered between January 2021 and June 2022, whilst in Asia state-authoritarianism led to worsening oppression, which Persecuted and Forgotten? found was at its worst in North Korea, where religious belief and practice are routinely and systematically repressed.
Report author John Pontifex said: “Persecuted and Forgotten? provides first-hand testimony and case studies proving that in many countries Christians are experiencing persecution – let us do all that we can do to show that they are not forgotten.”