How many Christians are left in Afghanistan?

It is not known how many Christians there are in Afghanistan. , no one has ever counted them. It is estimated there are a few hundred people, families that it is now hoped to be able to bring to safety and a dozen religious of whom there is no news.

"I hope that some Western governments will address the problem of minorities, such as the Christian one", is the appeal to LaPresse di Alexander Monteduro, Director of Aid to the Church in Need, the pontifical foundation that deals with persecuted Christians, especially in the Middle East.

Just yesterday Papa Francesco he joined the "unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan" where the Taliban have now also taken possession of the capital Kabul.

The foundation of the Holy See does not have a project partner in the country, because there are no dioceses, "it is one of the very few countries in which we have never been able to develop a support activity," Monteduro said.

According to the missions, there are very few underground house churches, with no more than 10 participants, "we are talking about families". The only Christian church in the country is located in the Italian embassy.

“According to our reports there would be only 1 Jew, the Hindu Sikh community only counts 500 units. When we say that 99% of the population is Muslim we are exaggerating by default. Of these, 90% are Sunni ”, explains the director of ACS.

"I do not know what happened to the religious present in Afghanistan", Monteduro denounces. Until yesterday there were three religious of the Little Sisters of Jesus who dealt with health care, five religious of the congregation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Missionaries of Charity, and two or three others belonging to an inter-congregational Pro-Children community of Kabul.

"The way the Taliban came to power leaves everyone baffled," he comments. What he says most worried about, however, is the expansion of ISKP (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), “an ally of the Taliban but never in favor of the Doha peace accords - he explains -. This meant that the ISKP aggregated the extremists and while the Taliban received recognition, this was not the case for the ISKP, which became the protagonist of attacks on Shiite mosques but also on a Hindu temple. I would not even want the Taliban to represent the moderate part of this story ”.