In Depth:  Barnabas Fund / World Watch Monitor

Christians in Chad are facing increasing levels of persecution from local officials and violence from Islamist militant group Boko Haram and Muslim extremist herdsmen, it was reported in early April.

In March, violence erupted in the Tandjile region resulting in the torching of several villages, the closing of markets, and many deaths. The International Federation for Human Rights also reported that Boko Haram activities are increasing in south-western Chad where many Christian farming communities live.

One of 21 churches in Egypt’s southern rural Minya governorate was given permission to restore, expand and rebuild after receiving approval from the Minya governor on 17 November.

Governor Essam al-Bedeiwi approved the 21 applications over the last six months. Some of the churches had been waiting for more than 20 years for a permit to come through. An evangelical church in Tama, Sohag gov-ernorate, was the latest to receive its permit.

Eritrea has been described as the second worst place on earth for Christians to live, after North Korea.

President Isaias Afewerki has been in power since the country’s independence in 1993 and there have been no elections since then. The country’s citizens are subject to mass surveillance and arbitrary arrest, causing them to live in constant fear. After reaching the age of about 16, boys and girls are called up for an indefinite period of military service that is effectively a form of slave labour.