Hope rippled across Sudan in 2019 following the ouster of long-time dictator Bashir al-Assad. Believers thought, “Now we can finally have freedom!” as a transitionary panel tried to steer the country toward democracy.

Four years later, Sudan’s dream has become a living nightmare. Members of the diaspora tell an unfoldingWord partner named John*, “I don’t know if I ever want to go back because there’s nothing in Sudan now that we can ever put our trust in.”

Fighting that began in April between the army and paramilitary forces has reduced Khartoum to an urban warzone. “The people of the country are not important” to the warring parties, John says.

“Human life is not important. Winning and controlling the resources of Sudan is the goal.”

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

More than seven million people are now displaced inside Sudan – the highest in the world. Furthermore, disease runs rampant in displacement camps, and supplies have reached a critical low.

Yet hope remains. Sudanese church planters are delivering relief aid to people in need. The Gospel accompanies every food distribution and trauma counseling session.

“Currently, our organization is helping 571 families in 12 locations inside Sudan and on Sudan’s border with Chad and South Sudan,” John says.

Find your place in the story

Now that you know, what will you do? Send tangible aid here. Use prompts listed alongside this report to intercede for Sudan.

Because these issues matter to the Lord, “we have to want to know those things, as unpleasant as they are,” John says.

“God wants us to be burdened – not the burden that crushes – but He wants us to be concerned in our hearts about the things, people, and realities in our world that burden His heart.”

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“When you open your email, the information you need to pray well and to pray informed will be right there for you,” John says.

*Pseudonym

Header image depicts Sudan flag and national emblem. (Wikimedia Commons)

At least 512 people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and a rival paramilitary force. A 72-hour ceasefire expired last night as foreign nations rushed to evacuate their diplomats and citizens.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese nationals risked the perilous journey to “South Sudan, [or crossed into neighboring] Chad or Egypt,” Fadi Sharaiha with The MENA Leadership Center says.

“It’s a civil war,” he continues, asking believers in the West to pray for their Christian brothers and sisters in Sudan.

“The whole country is being affected, and Christians are part of the whole country. People are starving. We received reports saying, ‘We don’t have any food’; 70 percent of hospitals in Sudan are not working.”

As two generals and their forces fight to control the country, no one’s left to protect the citizens. Home invasions and looting are rampant. “Prisoners are fleeing the prisons; we have criminals all over,” Sharaiha says.

“The old regime is also outside the prison, which is a very bad indicator.”

Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.
(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s former dictator toppled in 2019, was transferred to a military hospital with five former officials before the fighting started. Now, at least one former official is missing.

Sudan could go in one of two directions in the coming weeks, Sharaiha says.

“The best-case scenario is that both armies will have some kind of peace treaty and go back [to a] civil government rather than military government, and everybody will live happily ever after,” he explains.

“[The] worst-case scenario is they will continue fighting until they destroy both armies and the whole country.”

Now that you know, what will you do? “Pray, pray, pray,” Sharaiha requests.

“Please pray [that] no harm will happen to the Church and that the Church will take its responsibility as the light and salt for the nation [of] Sudan. Pray for the safety of the [Sudanese] people.”

Header image courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA.

Today, Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says these believers are far from safe. “They have been publicly identified in Darfur as apostates, as Christians, so the danger exists even outside the courtroom,” he explains.

“They have gone into hiding because of threats from radical Muslims.”

Calls for revolution led to the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Christians suffered severe persecution under Bashir’s rule. More about that here.

(Photo courtesy of VOM USA)

“After Bashir was overthrown, the attitude of Christians in Sudan [was] ‘right now we have an open window. We’re going to run as fast as we can to spread the Gospel, to strengthen the Church, while this window is open,’” Nettleton says.

The promise of civilian rule raised hopes for religious freedom. Then, a military coup last year changed everything. “As Christians look at who’s in charge of the country, it’s justified to wonder if that window is closing,” Nettleton says.

Pray for strength and endurance for Sudanese Christians. “Their (Sudanese Christians’) attitude is, ‘If the government is opening the door, that’s great. Let’s go,’” Nettleton says.

“‘If the government is pushing against us, we still are called to serve the Lord. We still have work to do.’”

Header and story images courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved a transitional military council on Monday, voicing support for democratic rule. Protestors say they’re suspicious of a ploy and remain in the streets despite threats and crackdowns.

“Are they (the military) serious? That’s the question,” says John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan.

“Or, do they want the appearance of a civil rule so they can stay [away from] economic embargoes and those kinds of things.”

A 2019 coup removed longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir from power, raising Christian hopes for religious freedom. Three years later, believers face the same conditions as before.

“They’re not much farther down the line than when they removed Bashir. The government structure that was in place under Bashir, and the leaders of that structure, did not change,” John says.

“The challenge before the Church is how [they will] fulfill the role of the Church, regardless of the change in government.”

Circumstances vary across Sudan, but danger remains high in places like Darfur.

(Graphic courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

At the end of June, “four men were arrested, jailed, beaten; and [told], ‘You either say that someone paid you to become a Christian or according to Islamic law, we’re going to behead you right now,’” John says.

As described here by Morningstar News:

Officers reportedly ordered the Christians to leave the area. The arrested men refused but have since gone into hiding. Muslim extremists in the area have called for their death, one of the arrested Christians said.

“[The attackers are] basing their threat on a law that was made null by the civil government, but in Darfur, they’re applying it (the apostasy law). That gives you a picture of the struggle, where control is ultimately going to dominate” and decide whether legal changes are enforced or not, he concludes.

Pray the Lord will strengthen His followers in Sudan, no matter what happens next. Pray for courage for church leaders so that they may move forward with ministry despite potential persecution.

*Pseudonym

The header image shows the flag of Sudan. (Image by David Peterson from Pixabay)

Security forces killed a protestor in Khartoum last week as he demonstrated against military rule, bringing the total number of civilian deaths since October’s coup to 102. Widespread hunger further compounds public frustration with leadership.

April 2019 protestors in Khartoum, Sudan.
(Photo credit: Hind Mekki/Flickr/CC2.0)

Junta and civilian bloc leaders remain at loggerheads. The United States and Saudi Arabia brokered talks earlier this month, but the outcome remains unclear. Generals loyal to the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir recently found themselves in “influential” positions, BBC News reports, raising concern about a comeback.

Meanwhile, a Church-Centric Bible Translation team celebrates progress. “They finished the Sudanese Arabic Open Bible Stories,” unfoldingWord CEO David Reeves says.

“It’s the ‘meta narrative’. An Old Testament/New Testament survey [in] 50 key Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation.”

Right now, church planters are “sharing [the stories] and proclaiming the Gospel; people are coming to Christ through that process,” Reeves says. This translation, the first of its kind in Sudanese Arabic, is a critical resource for bilingual believers.

“They want to use it to help translate [Open Bible Stories] into all the minority languages in Sudan, many of those represent unreached people groups.”

By partnering with church planting networks, unfoldingWord equips and empowers believers to translate God’s Word into minority languages. Learn more here.

“Initially, we went in and worked closely with them, helping to train them. In this next batch, they’re (believers are) doing the work, and we’re observing,” Reeves says.

Three ways to partner with unfoldingWord

1. Pray

Use the prompts listed alongside this report, or “on our website, there’s a special page for current prayer requests. The most powerful and strategic thing you can do is join us in prayer,” Reeves says.

“We are up against powers and principalities of darkness in these parts of the world where they haven’t had access to the Gospel. Our Enemy doesn’t want to see that happen.”

2. Serve

Are you linguistically gifted? Connect with unfoldingWord here.

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

“We need to have a set of resources translated into what we call Gateway Languages or languages of wider communication,” Reeves says.

“We’ve got a few openings for people to come alongside and help in that.”

3. Give

As a nonprofit, unfoldingWord depends on gifts from God’s people to fuel its work. Give safely online here.

“Start with prayer, but if you have the capacity, want to participate financially and be a partner in this, then, by all means, join us,” Reeves says.

Header image courtesy of Prayercast.

United Nations officials say mediations continue between coup leaders and the ousted prime minister. John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, says the October 25 military coup did not surprise believers.

People loyal to Bashir, the dictator overthrown in 2019, still held positions of power. “Until that part of the government was effectively dealt with, we believed that there would either be a second renaissance that went deeper within the civil government and military cooperation, or there would be a coup,” John says.

A new report from the Religious Freedom Institution explores conditions in Sudan leading up to the coup. It describes active threats to religious freedom and stability, like the Security Forces.

“The Security Forces were kind of a government within a government. You had the government that was visible to the world, but the Security Forces were behind mobilizing Arab militias that brought about the genocide [in places like Darfur],” John explains.

“The Security Forces are the ones implementing religious persecution – tracking pastors, arresting them.”

Nonetheless, hope remains. The Lord is still at work in Sudan.

“There has been a grassroots movement among Muslims who have come to Christ. They came to know the Lord out of [visions] and dreams. They came to know the Lord because they were so distraught over the Muslim-on-Muslim violence. Islam wasn’t giving them answers,” John says.

Sudanese partners tell John about “new believers and baptisms, and house churches planted that have not come from [a] traditional structure, but rather from the grassroots movement of God among Muslims.”

Pray these new believers will become a powerful Kingdom-building force in Sudan. Pray negotiators can find a resolution that restores peace and order to Sudan.

*Pseudonym

Header image courtesy of Prayercast.

Will General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan concede or maintain his current control?

Mediators say negotiations between the two parties continue and will “bear fruit” in the coming days. John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, doesn’t think a “quick fix” is realistic.

“The (complex) background in Sudan doesn’t give a good foundation for quick movement into a new government, a new philosophy of society,” John says.

“Real change takes time.”

A family seeks shelter from bombings among the rocks.
(Photo, caption courtesy VOM USA)

The October 25 military takeover is the latest episode in Sudan’s rocky transition to civilian rule. Massive protests in 2019 removed former dictator Omar al-Bashir from power. Bashir held Sudan under militant Islamic control for nearly 30 years.

Persecuted Christians saw Bashir’s departure as their chance for religious freedom, but that hope quickly faded. “When the change in government first took place, in Khartoum [believers were] marching in the streets with banners celebrating the birth of Christ,” John says.

At the same time, “in Darfur, leaders of house church movements [were] arrested and in Blue Nile state, churches were being burned,” he continues.

“There’s always a cosmetic change before any real change.”

Find your place in the story

Pray for unity among Sudanese believers, and pray they will stand firm in their faith.

“Pray they do the work of the Church, [and] pray they have the courage to challenge a government that is restricting their right to worship God as they choose,” John requests.

“The Church is called to be the Church in all circumstances. That means leaders – even broken ones, even persecuted ones – God is still calling them to lead the Church.”

Ask the Lord to help Sudanese Christians persevere. Sudan may follow the same rocky path to religious freedom as Egypt. “[It] took two other versions of the Arab Spring” to get Egypt where it is now, John says.

“They had the (first) Arab Spring, got rid of the previous leader. They thought they had a leader [who] was going to lead them toward democracy. It became an oppressive government. Then, there were 10 million people in the streets, and they have another change of government.”

*Pseudonym

Graphic used in header image courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA.

Analysts say political and military leaders have long been divided, but recent events made the opposition public for the first time in two years. It could derail the fragile transition process. More about the civilian-military division here.

Until the end of Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorship in 2019, hardline Islamic authorities posed the biggest threat to Christians. Now, the challenges look a little different.

“The Church has been in conflict and greatly immobilized. Not so much from without, but from within,” says John*, a Gospel worker partnering with unfoldingWord in Sudan.

“God is moving, and it’s evident. But the evangelical Church in Sudan deeply needs prayer, and they deeply need a spiritual renewal.”

Denominational division

Several years ago, the Sudanese government set up committees to oversee churches. “Now, in this version of Sudan’s Arab Spring, those committees are being dismantled,” John says.

He adds that Sudanese believers are deeply divided along denominational lines, explaining that many Christians fled to South Sudan when it became a nation ten years ago. “That left believers [who] came out of Islam with control of the Church, but there were different groups in several other denominations,” John says.

“From that time to now, they’re still in conflict over who’s in charge.”

Ongoing division makes the path toward harmony both complicated and challenging.

“The traditional, denominational Church is fairly immobilized at the moment. But there is a movement of God at a grassroots level among Muslims who are coming to Christ, who are not connected to denominations,” John says.

(Photo courtesy of Prayercast)

You can be part of Sudan’s spiritual revolution.

First and foremost, “prayer is essential,” John says. Use the prompts listed alongside this report to guide your intercession, or use this free resource from our sister ministry, Prayercast.

Additionally, “if churches have contact with indigenous organizations inside Sudan, I would encourage them to strengthen those contacts because the parts of the country where God is doing the most are generally not available to Westerners,” John says.

“They’re the places where genocide [occurred], and the border [area] with South Sudan. That is where the Gospel is moving right now.”

*Name withheld for security purposes

In the header image, the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok delivers a speech during the [2019] alternative media forum in Khartoum, Sudan. (Wikimedia Commons)

See our full Sudan coverage here.

The ICC has wanted Bashir since 2009. He’s charged with committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the conflict in Darfur. Bashir ruled Sudan with an iron fist for 30 years; transitional leaders promised justice to his victims when they took the helm two years ago.

Abraham* with the Program for Theological Education by Extension (PTEE) describes more good news: “I heard from the [Sudanese Christian] leaders that the situation with the new government is better than in the past,” he says.

“Now it [has] become a little bit more open for evangelism, more open for the Good News. Some missionaries came back; [they were] kicked out of the country four years ago.”

Gospel growth

Zoom allows PTEE to hold training sessions online, effectively bypassing COVID-19 in-person restrictions.
(Photo courtesy of PTEE)

Last month, PTEE held two-week online training sessions for believers in Sudan. “Around 21 leaders attending this training [on] Zoom and after they finished the training, they now [have] four groups for studying in Khartoum,” Abraham says.

PTEE works with and through local churches to provide accredited theological training in Arabic dialects. Visit PTEE’s website to learn more. The July training sessions were not typical PTEE courses, Abraham says.

“No, it is a training for trainers,” he explains, teaching course facilitators “how to lead the group in discussion, how to manage the course, and how to take care of the record of the course.”

Pray this training will help Arabic-speaking Christian leaders grow in their faith and disciple others. Praise God for Sudanese believers’ faithfulness and endurance, and pray PTEE can reach isolated Christians. “I think God gave us this gift of internet so we could reach out to different places in Sudan,” Abraham says.

“Despite all the challenges and difficulties, we praise the Lord for the encouraging news. They (Sudanese believers) like to study the Bible, have groups at home, and they are [continuing] to study with us.”

*Pseudonym

Header image depicts former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. (Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

“They (Sudan’s transitional government) are trying to get out from under debt and incredible inflation, and COVID, and all of those things, so that they can get some international involvement,” says John*, a Gospel worker partnering with unfoldingWord in Sudan.

“They’re trying to put a new face on Sudan.”

Old habits die hard, though. Take persecution, for example.

Earlier this month, gunmen attacked a Christian government worker and threatened to kill him. “If I understand it correctly, he was part of a committee set up to return property that was illegally seized under the previous Bashir government,” John says.

April 2019 protestors in Khartoum, Sudan.
(Photo credit: Hind Mekki/Flickr/CC2.0)

“It wasn’t just that he was an independent person advocating for it. He was part of the group trying to facilitate that happening.”

The struggle for Sudan

Sudan’s transition from dictatorship to civilian rule is complicated, to say the least. To understand Sudan’s challenges, one must recognize the country’s history and context.

See our full Sudan coverage here.

“Sudan has been through a number of transitions. One of them, the recent one, is from a minority, Arab-Islamic government and primarily black African country, to a combination of civil government and military government forming a (leadership) committee,” John explains.

“90% of the people on the government that were there before are still there, so the roots of the conflict between Islam and Christianity, and Arabs and ethnic blacks, continues.”

Pray God will move mightily in Sudan. “The movement of God among Muslims who are coming to Christ, and leading at a grassroots level, is significant in several places,” John says.

Pray that God’s Holy Spirit continues moving among unreached people groups despite ongoing persecution. In one community we won’t name for security purposes, five people “have come to know Christ [and] they began leading small studies,” John says.

“All five of them had their houses burnt down in the last 60 days.”

*Name withheld for security purposes.

Header image depicts Sudanese forces. (Photo courtesy of smahel/Pixabay)