More than 100 church leaders, theologians, academics, and victims of persecution gathered in Africa from 5 to 8 October for a symposium organized by the All Africa Conference of Churches, the seventh the ecumenical body has run since 2019. The meeting examined freedom of belief and the pressures confronting religious minorities across the continent, with an explicit aim of helping member churches develop theologies that respond to current cultural, social, historical, religious, and political realities.
The economics of persecution sat at the center of the discussion. Rev. Dr Fidon Mwombeki, the conference’s general secretary and a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, urged participants to tackle the material roots of persecution through resource management, agricultural support, and reconstruction microcredit funds in conflict zones such as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where poverty and violence reinforce one another. “Many conflicts labeled ‘religious persecution’ are also rooted in economics, ethnicity, and resource competition,” he said, cautioning that the phenomenon could not be addressed as physical violence, terrorism, and martyrdom alone. He called for backing local advocacy efforts, citing the biblical model of Esther, through education, legal training, and economic support rather than public shaming of governments.
The scale of the problem was laid out in stark figures. In Nigeria, at least 52,250 Christians have been killed over 14 years, making the West African nation a clear case of religious persecution. Fulani pastoralists, driven by climate change and desertification, have pushed into the country’s Middle Belt, triggering clashes with Christian farmers. The violence has displaced more than 4 million people, with Christians bearing the brunt. In the northeast, Boko Haram has destroyed more than 200 churches, displaced 1.5 million people, killed 13,000 people, and kidnapped and enslaved hundreds of Christian children and women.
Elsewhere the picture is no better. Coptic Christians in Egypt face violence and restrictions on church buildings, while in Libya, Christians, mostly migrant workers, have faced forced veiling, executions, and floggings by militias since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. An estimated 9,000 migrants are arbitrarily detained in the North African country.
Illia Djadi, senior analyst on Freedom of Religion and Belief at Arise Africa Campaign, told the conference that Africa, as a vast mission field, was also a centre of proselytism and tensions, with persecution of Christians becoming a reality in sub-Saharan Africa. “It is a phenomenon that is gaining momentum and affecting thousands…. Violent persecution has reached alarming proportions,” Djadi said in a presentation calling for deeper reflection on the political, social, and religious factors challenging freedom of religion and belief.
Local responses were highlighted as models. In Sudan, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference has used public letters to demand religious freedom from the state. In Nigeria and Kenya, Christian leaders who have publicly forgiven attackers after terrorist attacks are countering jihadist discourse and building alliances with moderate Muslims.
The human dimensions of the violence also surfaced. Loid Taye Negatu, a senior law student from the University of Addis Ababa, described how persecution-related violence affects gender groups differently: men and boys are often targeted in shootings and killings, while women are the ones who flee.
Rev. Dr John Ngige Njoroge, the conference’s executive secretary for Theology and Interfaith Relations and a priest of the Orthodox Church in Kenya, said the symposium based its call to action on Isaiah 1:16-17, “Wash and make yourselves clean; learn to do right; seek justice for the oppressed.” “The participants noted the importance of approaching religious liberty within specific African contexts, with clarity on what genuine freedom entails and the rights that must be protected,” he said. “It reaffirmed the responsibility of the churches and partners to advance freedom of belief, defend human dignity, challenge injustice, and contribute to societies in which people of different faiths can live together with mutual respect, peace, and security.” The organization, he said, will translate the symposium’s insights and commitments into continued advocacy, theological engagement, interfaith cooperation, and practical action across the continent to mitigate persecution and build resilience against it.
Whether microcredit funds and agricultural support can loosen the grip of poverty and violence in places like the Middle Belt remains an open question, and one the churches’ next round of advocacy will have to answer.