News

Sudan: Church attacked during worship, pastor sentenced to a month in jail

April 29, 2022

During the time of the Emperor Justinian (AD 527-565), Nubia (modern-day Sudan) was a center of Christianity. Today, most of the small minority of Sudanese who are Christians are Roman Catholic or Protestant, and there is also still a small number of Greek Orthodox Christians there.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Sudan, see here.

“Attacked Pastor in Sudan Sentenced to Month in Jail,” Morning Star News, April 25, 2022:

JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – A pastor in Sudan who was attacked during worship this month was sentenced to a month in jail on Monday (April 25) under a law against disturbing the peace, sources said.

Judge Awad Ibrahim Kury, a Muslim, found Pastor Stephanou Adil Kujo of disturbing the peace under Article 69 of Sudan’s 1991 penal code and sentenced him to one month in jail beginning April 25, said the Christian’s attorney, Shanabo Awad. The assailant who attacked him, Ibrahim Kodi, was also sentenced to a month in jail on the same charge.

During worship at the Evangelical Luthern Church in Al Hag Abdalla, about 85 miles southeast of Khartoum in Madani, Al Jazirah state, three Muslim extremists on April 10 disrupted worship and attacked three Christians. The assailants were led by Kodi, locally known as Banaga, who punched Pastor Kujo, tore his shirt and assaulted two women of the congregation, Awad said. The other two assailants tore Bibles and broke chairs.

“This ruling is not fair, and my client is innocent,” Awad told Morning Star News.

The jailed Christian leader’s church has long been harassed by Muslim extremists. Leaders of the church were detained and questioned in February after Muslim extremists upset about the presence of their worship building locked it shut on Feb. 21. Dalman Hassan, an evangelist arrested on Feb. 27 and released along with the church pastor later that day, said the Muslims accused church members of hostility toward Islam by holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer….

In Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan remained at No. 13, where it ranked the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally….

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the toal population of more than 43 million.