Papal Charity Warns that ‘Jihadist Terrorism Is Spreading’ in Africa

The spread of terrorism and Islamic extremism in Africa is a cause of “great suffering and pain” for Christians in this continent, stated Regina Lynch, executive president of the international charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

In her June 20 report, Lynch declared that ACN was shifting its focus in a particular way to Africa, notably the Sahel region in sub-Saharan Africa, “where jihadist terrorism is spreading and where Christians are facing increasing suffering from the violence.”

Several countries are located either partially or entirely within the Sahel region — notably, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad in the western Sahel and Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti in the eastern Sahel.

According to the Economist, in recent years, the Sahel has become the hub of Islamist violence in the world, with nearly half of all global deaths from terrorism taking place in sub-Saharan Africa.

One Sahelian group affiliated with al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, is “the fastest-growing terrorist group in the world,” the Economist stated.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) revealed in its 2024 annual report that Burkina Faso had become the country with the highest impact from terrorism for the first time, with deaths from terrorism increasing by 68 percent to a total of 1,907. A quarter of all terrorism deaths across the globe took place in 2023 in Burkina Faso.

The epicenter of terrorism “has now conclusively shifted out of the Middle East and into the Central Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa,” the GTI reported. “There were just under four thousand deaths from terrorism in the Sahel in 2023, or 47 percent of the total.”

Moreover, the increase in terrorism in the Sahel over the past 15 years has been dramatic, with deaths rising 2,860 percent, the GTI found.

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger account for most of the terrorism deaths in the region and all three face uncertain futures, having suffered from coups, weak governance, and fragile relations with neighboring countries, the GTI added.

At the same time, “Africa is home to approximately one in every five Catholics, one in every eight priests, one in every seven female religious, and almost a third of seminarians in the world,” Lynch noted in her ACN report, which makes Christians a prime target for much of the Islamist-fueled terrorist violence.

Thomas D. Williams is the author of The Coming Christian Persecution: Why Things Are Getting Worse and How to Prepare for What Is to Come.