An update on global terror and a reminder of the Great Commission
By Abigail Hofland | April 16, 2026
International (MNN) – A new report shows that of the five countries accounting for the highest numbers of terrorism related deaths, only two nations are experiencing a recent uptick in violence: Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nigeria saw a 46% jump from 2024 to 2025, with 750 total deaths by terrorism last year. In the DRC, the toll rose from 365 in 2024 to 467 in 2025, a 28 percent increase.
While global deaths from terror have dropped in the last year, Boko Haram in Nigeria and the IS-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the DRC continue to plague those countries with terrorist activity.
Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says location is not coincidental, as terrorists have a clear strategy. “They look for vulnerable areas: places where they can create more strongholds with their radical ideology. Northern Nigeria is a representation of that. [Democratic Republic of Congo], because of its instability, is representative of it.”
Kelley says the absence of government response in these areas emboldens the terrorists.
For the church’s part, many Christians in Nigeria’s south struggle to empathize with or minister to their northern Muslim neighbors. But there, in predominantly Muslim communities, the believers have a different outlook.
“If you go to the North,” Kelley says, “and you meet someone who came out of Islam who would be a Muslim Background Believer, when they come to faith in Christ, they become infernos for the Gospel.”
He points out that the believers’ insistence on staying in their area mobilizes ministry partners to join the work.
“We constantly have to move missionaries. The reality is that’s where the mission need is. It’s not in the South. It’s in the North.”
Meanwhile, in the DRC, ongoing conflict and humanitarian need further expose the vulnerable citizens of that nation. Kelley says where the battleground exists, our mission should follow.
“Where are the battlelines? Where is the threat coming? That’s where we need to mobilize and deploy our resources, which in this case is Northeast Congo,” he says. “That’s the location that people listening to this, praying for this, need to center their targeted resources: prayer, finances, personnel.”
The citizens of these countries are suffering, and they represent the least of these Jesus talks about in Matthew 25:40. Without diminishing the call to meet their physical needs, Kelley reminds us of another instruction from Jesus: one in Matthew 28:18 – 20.
“We need to look at these places and then ask the next question, which is, ‘What is the nation or people group being affected? Have they had a Gospel witness, or have they not?’” Kelley says. “Because you could be responding to a humanitarian need in a place that’s 95% Christian. That’s wonderful. No one is telling you to stop doing that. But that can’t be your only expression of the Great Commission.”
Please pray for Nigeria and DRC, including the various people groups represented within these countries. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers, and pray for a plentiful harvest as a result.
Please also pray for the families, communities, and nations affected by global terrorism. Ask the Lord for protection, courage, and resilience as believers live out their faith in the toughest of circumstances.
Pray also for the terrorists, whose hearts of darkness mirror those of every sinner in need of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ.
May the Lord be glorified as these souls find hope in Him!
Featured image courtesy of Ian Panelo via Pexels.
Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/an-update-on-global-terror-and-a-reminder-of-the-great-commission/