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Sudan: Two churches burned down by arsonists over the past month

March 21, 2020

Persecution of Christians in Sudan: Sudan is a majority-Muslim country, although the area that is modern-day Sudan was long ago a Christian stronghold. Most Sudanese Christians today are Roman Catholic or Protestant; there is still a small number of Greek Orthodox Christians there. As these church burnings indicate, Christians of every faith tradition are vulnerable.

May Almighty God protect the Christians of Sudan, alleviate their suffering, and allow their community to grow.

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

“Two Churches Burned Down in Sudan Amidst Changes,” International Christian Concern, March 19, 2020:

03/19/2020 Sudan (International Christian Concern) – According to Radio Dabanga, two churches have been burned down by arsonists over the past month. Radio Dabanga received a report from a local lawyer and human rights defender named Dimas Marajan. Marajan said that though there have been some changes in Sudan since the fall of Bashir, violence against Christian communities has continued.

He said that the first attack took place on February 29 in Omdurman, Khartoums twin city across the river. The building belonged to the often persecuted Sudanese Church of Christ. The second burning took place on March 9 when militants burned down a church in Bout village of Blue Nile State. The church belonged to the Presbyterian Evangelical Church. These attacks followed just a couple of months after three churches being burned down in South Eastern Sudan.

In April 2019, Omar al-Bashir, the longtime dictator of Sudan, was ousted in a coup d’état. With this overthrow, there was a lot of hope for persecuted religious minorities to gain freedom. Now, almost a year later, changes seem to be taking place at the government level, but many people are resistant to them. So far, the new government in Sudan has promised to return all church properties, disbanded all committees established by Bashir to oversee churches, placed multiple Christians in high level positions and is returning control of church affairs to church leaders. Despite this, there is still much scrutiny over the changes and the idea that Christians will have freedom any time soon. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Sudan who suffer at the hands of hateful and violent communities.