Sudan (MNN) — The impact of Sudan’s civil war on religious communities is a cause for concern, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The USCIRF details attacks on religious leaders and churches in a new report.
“Pastors are being killed. Churches are being bombed, occupied, and claimed for one or the other side. Individuals continue to know persecution as well as Christians within the refugee community,” says John*, an unfoldingWord partner focused on Sudan.
More than 150 churches have been destroyed since the war began, the USCIRF report notes. Two weeks ago, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intercepted a senior church leader as he was traveling in northern Sudan and demanded ransom for his release.
Two generals have been fighting for control of Sudan since last April. Although the war is not outwardly religious, “Whenever the war is over, and whichever one of them is in charge, they don’t want the Church to have any significant presence in their society and culture,” John says.
Believers may have lost their churches and homes in this senseless war, but they are not losing hope. “As people hear the Word of God in Sudanese, Arabic, in one location, in one week, 200 people came to know the Lord,” John says.
“God is moving in the midst of this (war), and Satan has been defeated heart by heart as people come to know the truth.”
Support translation efforts in Sudan here through unfoldingWord. Pray that people will come to know the Lord as church planters introduce Muslim refugees to God’s Word in their heart language.
“We’re partners with unfoldingWord, and we’re in the process of translating the Word of God into 11 unreached people group languages,” John says.
“Among some tribes where there have been no believers, we’re seeing dozens coming to the Lord; there are weekly baptisms.”
*Pseudonym
Header image is a representative photo depicting an outline of the country of Sudan overlaid by a Sudanese map and national emblem. (Wikimedia Commons)
