Christians Caught between Warring Islamist Factions in Sudan

Location of Gezira state in Sudan. (Map data © Google 2024)

(Christian Daily International) – Christians in Sudan are caught between two fighting factions, with each military group accusing them of siding with the other, an advocacy group said.

In Gezira state southeast of Khartoum, where rebel militants of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are forcing Christians in Al Thora Mobe village to convert to Islam, RSF militants accuse anyone of trying to flee of supporting the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

The village, a suburb of Wad Madani, has been under RSF control since December.

“It is also dangerous to flee, as the RSF has surrounded the village and accuses anyone who tries to leave the area of being affiliated with the SAF,” CSW said in a press statement, citing an area source. “However, those who do escape areas under RSF control risk being arrested by military intelligence and detained like the SCOC [Sudanese Church of Christ] members held in Shendi.”

In Shendi, River Nile state, SAF military intelligence in the past week arbitrarily arrested 26 fleeing men, most of them Christians, on suspicion of supporting the RSF. Fourteen were released Oct. 12-13, but the remaining 12 remain in detention, CSW stated.

“Most of the detained men are members of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) in Al Ezba, Khartoum North, and were forced to flee along with their families as fighting between the SAF and RSF intensified in the city,” CSW reported. “They were among 100 SCOC members who fled to Shendi in October.”

SAF military intelligence were arrested the men at the SCOC building in Shendi – six on Oct. 6, 10 on Oct. 10 and another 10 on Oct. 11.

“Military intelligence officers harassed, interrogated and finally detained the men, accusing them of being affiliated with the RSF,” CSW reported. “An eyewitness told CSW that all of the men were harassed and physically assaulted in front of their families.”

The men had travelled to Shendi with their families, including at least 25 women and 54 children, who now face a dire humanitarian situation and have been forced to stay in overcrowded conditions at the SCOC church building in Shendi, according to CSW.

“At the time of the arrests, the officers separated the men, women and children, and all males over the age of 18 were detained,” the group stated. “Those detained have not been allowed visits from family members or from their lawyers, and have not been formally charged with any crimes. They are held by the Almudada Unit of Military Intelligence, a notorious unit known to use torture and other forms of violence on detainees.”

The detained group, which includes at least one Muslim, belongs to the Moro Nuban tribe in South Kordofan state. The SCOC is a predominantly Nuba denomination that has suffered both religious and ethnic discrimination.

“We are deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of these men, who simply sought refuge for themselves and their families, yet have been subjected to unjust detention, unwarranted assaults and interrogation,” CSW’s founder and President Mervyn Thomas said. “We welcome the release of 14 of the men but are concerned by the continuing detention of the others. The circumstances of their arrest, the conditions of their detention, and the lack of access to their families and lawyers are egregious violations of their fundamental rights by the party to this conflict that occupies Sudan’s seat in international arenas, and which is therefore under a greater obligation to protect and respect the human dignity of all civilians.”

CSW called for the immediate and unconditional release of these men.

“We are also deeply concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian situation of internally displaced persons, and call on the authorities to ensure that support is provided for those who are enduring displacements over a year and a half into this conflict,” Thomas said.  

Fighting in Sudan between the paramilitary RSF and the SAF broke out in April 2023. The conflict between the RSF and the SAF, which had shared military rule in Sudan following an October 2021 coup, has terrorized civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere, displacing 10.2 million people, 7.9 million of them internally, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

The SAF’s Gen. Abdelfattah al-Burhan and his then-vice president, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were in power when civilian parties in March 2023 agreed on a framework to re-establish a democratic transition the next month, but disagreements over military structure torpedoed final approval.

Burhan sought to place the RSF – a paramilitary outfit with roots in the Janjaweed militias that had helped former strongman Omar al-Bashir put down rebels – under the regular army’s control within two years, while Dagolo would accept integration within nothing fewer than 10 years. The conflict burst into military fighting on April 15, 2023.

Both military leaders have Islamist backgrounds while trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom.

Christian sites have been targeted since the conflict began.

In Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 8, up from No. 10 the previous year, as attacks by non-state actors continued and religious freedom reforms at the national level were not enacted locally.

Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021. After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government had managed to undo some sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.

With the Oct. 25, 2021 coup, Christians in Sudan feared the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law. Abdalla Hamdok, who had led a transitional government as prime minister starting in September 2019, was detained under house arrest for nearly a month before he was released and reinstated in a tenuous power-sharing agreement in November 2021.

Hamdock had been faced with rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist “deep state” from Bashir’s regime – the same deep state that is suspected of rooting out the transitional government in the Oct. 25, 2021 coup.

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. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.

In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.

The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5 percent of the total population of more than 43 million.

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