Alawites, Druzes, Shi’ites and Christians in Syria are at heightened risk of being abducted or killed extrajudicially. This monthly update highlights known or suspected attacks against religious minorities in Syria, as an indicator of the ongoing threats to religious minorities in the country.
News & Stories
Tensions rise in West Papua as army blamed for killing evangelist and pregnant woman
A pregnant woman, an evangelist, and a teenager have been killed in a series of violent incidents in Indonesia’s restive Papua region. The killings have prompted the country’s national human rights body to open an investigation and drawn a rare rebuke from a government minister, raising concerns that soldiers are targeting civilians and worshipers in a conflict that offers little protection to those caught between the two sides.
A Syrian town answered Erdogan with a Hagia Sophia—Now its Christians are leaving
The interior of the Hagia Sophia Church in the central Syrian town of Suqaylabiyah, consecrated in 2022, but forced shut under pressure from Sunni Islamist militants who now dominate the country’s security forces. Photo courtesy of resident who wishes to remain anonymous. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul re-converted… Read more »
Nigeria: Fulani militants killed four times more people than Boko Haram and ISWAP
Plateau community members carrying the coffins of Christians killed in a recent Fulani militant attack. csi by Jude Dangwam in Jos, Plateau State These findings challenge the Nigerian government’s longstanding characterization of the violence as merely a “farmer-herder conflict” and support the argument that Christian communities have been disproportionately targeted. The figures come from the… Read more »
CSI at the UN: The Human Rights Council must act on Artsakh
The United Nations building in Geneva. csi. MEDIA RELEASE GENEVA – Today at the United Nations, Christian Solidarity International raised the issue of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Armenian Christians from their homeland in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh. CSI’s intervention was delivered by Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s director for public advocacy, during an interactive dialogue with the Special… Read more »
Nigeria: Pregnant woman flees Fulani militia attack; loses five family members
ThankGod holds her baby girl, Na’anbammun. csi Longdi ThankGod, a 22-year-old Christian woman, was in labor at a rural clinic in Nigeria’s Middle Belt when armed Fulani militia men stormed the building shortly after midnight. She escaped into the darkness while still enduring contractions, pursued by one of the attackers, as others killed her… Read more »
At European Parliament, CSI speaks about Christians in Iraq
On June 18, Christian Solidarity International participated in a meeting of the European Parliament’s Intergroup for Christians in the Middle East. The meeting was focused on the situation for Christians in Iraq. CSI’s director for public advocacy, Joel Veldkamp, briefed members of the European Parliament, alongside Pascale Warda, the former Iraqi minister for refugees and… Read more »
Coalition asks Tom Barrack to help free imprisoned Syrian Christian mayor
Suleiman Khalil, 52, the former mayor of the Christian town of Sadad in Syria, has been detained since February 8, 2026. MEDIA RELEASE On Friday, a coalition of leading religious freedom advocates sent an open letter to Ambassador Tom Barrack, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Syria, asking him to secure the release of… Read more »
Swiss MP Presses Federal Council Over Stalled Nagorno Karabakh Peace Forum
Swiss MP Stefan Müller-Altermatt speaks at an event with leaders from Nagorno Karabakh at the parliament house on April 30. csi When Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told Parliament on June 15 that convening a peace forum for the forcefully displaced Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh was “not possible” due to Switzerland’s inability to speak… Read more »
CSI highlights case of Neha Faqir, abducted Pakistani woman, at UK parliamentary inquiry
Lord Alton speaks at a hearing on coerced conversions of minority women at the UK parliament on June 16. Photo: Sophie Robinson, Institute for Development Studies. Addressing an event at the UK parliament on June 16, Christian Solidarity International’s director for public advocacy, Joel Veldkamp, shared the story of Neha Faqir, an 18-year-old Pakistani… Read more »
