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.
“Suspected Islamic Extremists Kill Four Christians in Sudan,” Morning Star News, January 27, 2023:
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A church pastor and three other Christians were killed in Sudan on Monday (Jan. 23) when suspected Islamic extremists shot them to death, an area source said.
Four of the victims’ traveling companions were wounded when the assailants opened fire on the team at the facility where they were spending the night in Kadugli, capital of Sudan’s South Kordofan state.
Sudanese-American Pastor Ibrahim Kandr, Ismail Osman, Bashir Almaak and Ayoub Ibrahim were spending the night in Kadugli en route to their home area of Um Durein when the assailants shot them between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., an area church leader said.
Islamic extremists who have been terrorizing people in the area since 2011 monitor movements in and out of town and likely saw the ministry team arrive for the night, said the church leader, whose name is withheld for security reasons.
Wounded in the attack were Imtiyas Marhy Jabdool, 29; Fadul Musa Al Haraba, 23; Zakaria Butros Al Haraba, 34; and Mujahid Hassan 19, the source said….
In southwestern Sudan’s South Darfur Province, two Christians were arrested on Jan. 8 in Nyala town by masked men believed to be national security personnel, local sources said. They were released without charges the same day.
The two converts, whose names are withheld for security reasons, were arrested by men in a government vehicle at 7 a.m. from an area home, said a source. Muslim sheikhs (teachers) had accused them of evangelizing Muslims and had warned them to stop doing so.
Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021….
In Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 10, up from No. 13 the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally….
The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. The State Department removed Sudan from the Special Watch List in December 2020….
