Sudan (MNN) — Fighting intensified in Sudan over the weekend.
In case you missed it, military and paramilitary forces are at war. See our coverage here. Mediators from the United States and Saudi Arabia called it quits last week after multiple failed ceasefires.
At least 2,000 people have died in the last ten weeks, and more than 2.5 million Sudanese are on the run. Guerrilla Rapid Support Forces (RSF) gunmen routinely open fire on crowds of people as they flee, the United Nations reports.
“We don’t know the extent of what is happening, but we know civilians are being killed,” says Arne*, a believer overseeing Bible translation work in the region for unfoldingWord.
“There’s genocide taking place in Darfur right now.”
The war brought unfoldingWord’s Sudanese Arabic project to a grinding halt in mid-April. “We don’t have much work going on inside Sudan; it’s impassable,” Arne says.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)
Five team members were trapped in Khartoum when the fighting began. Translators are in a safe location now, but “it’s very difficult and stressful for these men [to think] about what may be going on with their families,” Arne says.
“Several [men] on the Sudanese Arabic team have family in Darfur, which has been especially disconcerting for them.”
Two team members “are young men, and they have young families; a wife and one or two children,” Arne says.
“Neither one of them knows where the families are, what condition they’re in, or if anything has happened to them.”
Pray believers can be reunited with their families soon. Pray for an immediate end to the war in Sudan. “We’re asking [God to] settle the situation so we can continue to work in this region,” Arne says.
“God is the one who can intervene. He raises up nations, and He puts them down.”
Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord.
