Christians Face Severe Persecution in Sudan
While the fierce persecution of Christians in Nigeria has made recent headlines, fewer are aware of the plight of Christians in Sudan, who for decades have stood in the face of oppression that is centuries old and remains ongoing today.
The government of Sudan has, for decades, promoted a policy of religious uniformity, using violent force against non-Muslim communities—including a large Christian population in the southern regions of Sudan and what is now South Sudan.
The southern nation fought for its independence in no small part to escape the oppression imposed by Omar al-Bashir, an attempted genocide that reaped hundreds of thousands of deaths and was condemned in the world arena for crimes against humanity.
Even today, the persecution of the Christian population continues, whose contributions like hospitals, schools, and churches have been targeted for bombings and burnings. The United Nations has warned against “a very high risk of genocide and war crimes,” as government-aligned forces and armed groups continue campaigns of violence in areas with large Christian populations, including the Nuba Mountains.
Christian leaders in Sudan have long called for help from the international community and global Church, but feel their plight is largely overlooked in the shadow of more highly publicized world crises.
Today Catholics constitute a majority of the 3 percent Christian population remaining in Sudan, with an estimated 60 percent of Christians comprising the religious demographic of South Sudan – a figure which makes sense in light of the southern nation’s secession from its northern ruler to escape decades of religious persecution, and where many Christians were driven to flee during the war for independence.
The ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has inflamed the plight of persecuted Christians by providing an arena amid the backdrop of war to commit violent crimes with little accountability. Many Christians in Sudan live in the Nuba Mountains, an area that has been repeatedly targeted by government forces because of both the residents’ religious beliefs and their ethnic identity.
It is telling that the patron saint of Sudan and South Sudan is Saint Josephine Bakhita, a woman who overcame the horrors of slavery and found freedom and dignity in her Christian faith, placing her hope in a loving God. Christians in Sudan still hold fast to that hope, even amid the dangers and hardships they face today for practicing their faith. As one Christian man who was forcibly separated from his wife and children expressed, “I am in complete confidence that one day God will find a way out for me. But I don’t know when and how. I believe that God will do this and has not forsaken us.”
Read more about the current struggle of Sudanese Christians here.