Nigeria and war-torn Syria have occupied the first two slots on the list of countries where the most number of Christians were martyred last year. Syria is number one and Nigeria number two on The 2014 World Watch List.

The World Watch List (WWL) is contained in the annual report of Open Doors International, a US-based international organisation with 53 years track record as a watchdog for persecuted Christians. It “calculates (that) a total of 2,123 Christians were martyred in 2013, roughly twice the number in 2012. Syria and Nigeria led with 1,213 and 612 martyrs, respectively, followed by Pakistan (88), Egypt (83), Angola (16), Niger (15), Iraq (11), the CAR (9), and Colombia (8),” says a report in Christianity Today.

The report focused on ‘The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest To Be a Christian’ and has it that “Christian martyrdoms doubled in 2013’.

According to the report, ‘Twice as many Christians were killed for their faith in 2013 as in 2012, according to the latest report on the world’s top 50 violators of Christian religious freedom.

‘However, the 2014 World Watch List from Open Doors International – which notes the increased impact of “failed states” and reveals its methodology for the first time – calculates a far lower total for Christian martyrdoms than recent estimates by other groups.

‘The top 10 nations “where Christians faced the most pressure and violence,” according to the WWL, were North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen. While North Korea has topped the list for 12 straight years, this is the first time that a sub-Saharan African country took the No. 2 slot.

‘ “Overall, the 2014 list determines that pressure on Christians increased in 34 countries, decreased in five, and remained about the same in the remaining 14,” reports World Watch Monitor. The level of persecution “increased seriously” in eight countries: Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Colombia, and Kazakhstan. By contrast, it “decreased considerably” in two countries: Mali and Tanzania.

‘The list’s biggest debut: the Central African Republic (CAR), where strife between Muslims and Christians has displaced 1 million people and threatens to spread beyond the country’s borders, the United Nations recently warned.

‘ “Like Mali last year, CAR shows how rapidly a seemingly stable state can disintegrate and a Christian minority or even majority can come to the brink of extinction,” said Open Doors in its press release. The CAR surged from being unranked to No. 16, much as Mali surged from unranked to No. 7 last year. (Mali has now fallen to No. 33.)

‘When only incidents of violence – including murders, rapes, kidnappings and church burnings – are assessed, the CAR ranks No. 1 worldwide, followed by Syria (though it produced far more martyrs). Rounding out this top 10: Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Colombia, Eritrea and Sudan. (The WWL’s overall rankings include both physical violence and other pressures against Christians, and Open Doors notes that violence is not the most prevalent form of religious persecution.)

‘The rapid rise of the CAR illustrated an increase of persecution in “failed states,” according to Open Doors. Six of the WWL’s top 10 countries – Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen – fit the organization’s definition of a failed state: “a weak state where social and political structures have collapsed to the point where government has little or no control.”

‘The report showed “the importance of a stable state as a guardian of religious liberty,” said Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, chief strategy officer who oversees the WWL, in an interview released by the organization.

‘The rankings continued last year’s trends of increased persecution in African nations and by Islamist extremism, which drove persecution in 36 of the 50 WWL countries, according to the new report.

‘Sri Lanka (No. 29) and Bangladesh (No. 48) also joined the 2014 list, while Azerbaijan, Uganda, and Kyrgyzstan dropped off entirely. Tanzania dropped significantly from No. 24 to No. 49, while Colombia climbed from No. 46 to No. 25.’

•Photo shows Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.