Sudan (MNN) — The U.S. State Department confirms war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Sudan, but the designation carries no consequence.
Now in its eighth month, Sudan’s war has displaced over six million people, and at least 12,000 have died. Read our full coverage here.
International aid groups targeted by warring factions struggle to reach those in need. Traditional aid distribution methods aren’t working, so organizations are pivoting to adapt.
The current crisis in Sudan demonstrates the importance of exploring alternative pathways toward the provision of life-saving assistance. Relying on fighting factions to provide for the safe passage of aid is, at a certain point, naive given the pattern of violence that has emerged in the fighting thus far.
(Photo courtesy of Michael Starkie/Unsplash)
John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, says larger organizations are “trying now to distribute small amounts of aid through local groups on the ground in Sudan.”
In some locations, because many local aid groups or “committees” are Islamic, “when they find that someone has come to Christ out of Islam, they won’t give them food… whether it (the food) came from the U.N. or some other group,” church partners tell John.
“The view they (Islamic groups) have doesn’t include any compassion for someone who has left Islam, so withholding food is their duty.”
Gospel workers are coming to the rescue. “200 graduates from our school of mission, from 25 tribes, are part of the teams in six locations where refugees are,” John says.
Believers are distributing small amounts of food aid and encouraging people who’ve lost everything. “We’ve been doing that since the beginning of the war through the 28 networks of house churches,” John says.
“They don’t have a lot [of aid], but they (displaced people) may get one meal.”
John adds, “We just sent some money to our team in one of these locations to feed a new group of Christians who come out of Islam because the aid around them is being denied.”
Send help through John’s organization here. Or, “if you’re connected through your denomination to a church in Sudan, try to get a hold of the pastor, who may be a refugee, and say, ‘How can I help?’” John suggests.
*Pseudonym
Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of combonianos_brasil/Pixabay.
