Leading advocates of religious freedom today marked the International Day to Commemorate the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Beliefs.

The international foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic organisation that supports persecuted and suffering Christians in over 140 countries, highlighted a number of important issues.

Among them are the lack of international response to the myriad Islamic terrorist cells in Africa.

In particular, the threat to religious freedom in the Sahel region has severe consequences, not just for the members of the threatened religious groups, but for the growth and development of whole nations.

Worryingly there is a spiral of violence in Nigeria. The country with the largest population in Africa is experiencing an unprecedented scale of religious-based violence which ACN warns could get even worse unless the international community unites to address and seek solutions to the issues.

Likewise, there are millions of displaced people and refugees. Many of the victims of violence provoked by religious extremists have had to flee their ancestral homes.

There is also a disturbing rise in the use of sexual violence against minority religious groups, including kidnapping and forced marriages and conversions in countries such as Pakistan and Egypt.

Elsewhere, there is an alarming rise of religious attacks in Latin America, headed by Nicaragua, where in less than four years the Catholic Church has suffered over 190 attacks and desecrations.

At the same time, there is also an imposition of new aggressive secular ideologies.