Focus: Afro-Brazilian religions face evangelical ‘holy war’

According to the Ministry of Human Rights, in 2024 Brazil recorded an almost 70% year-on-year increase in cases of discrimination and attacks against religious practices. The main victims are religions of African origin such as Umbanda and Candomblé. Their practitioners are threatened and their religious temples destroyed and ransacked. This intolerance is fueled by branches of evangelical Christianity: Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal churches, whose numbers have soared in Brazil in recent years. Report by Jan Onoszko, Louise Raulais