The Algerian government has ramped up its crackdown on Christian churches in the North African country, including sentencing several Algerian church leaders to prison, according to a report.
House churches can now have only limited meetings of 10 people, according to the persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC).
According to the ICC, the Algerian government shut down at least 16 churches last year, continuing its closure of churches since the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.
Life in the North African country has become even more difficult for Christians since the Israel-Hamas war began. The Algerian government regards Christians as supporters of Israel in the ongoing conflict, and also sees them as a part of the foreign and western influences corrupting the nation’s Islamic national unity, the ICC explains.
Much like the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, the country has experienced street protests over Israel’s latest war with Hamas in Gaza. The government has issued some of the region’s most supportive statements to the Palestinians, calling “Zionist colonial occupation” the heart of the conflict on the day Hamas militants first attacked Israel. But it has imposed restrictions on some street protests, including those organized by Islamists opposed to the government.
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