A Rapid Support Forces commander known as “the butcher of El Fasher” is reportedly out of prison and back in combat, boosting morale among rebel forces and spreading fear among survivors.

Flag of the Rapid Support Forces
(MartinKassemJ120, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The RSF detained Brigadier General al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, known as Abu Lulu, after multiple social media videos showed him committing atrocities against unarmed civilians in the fallout from last year’s battle for El Fasher.

The trauma inflicted by Abu Lulu and others demonstrates how citizens pay the heaviest price of Sudan’s civil war.

Neither of the warring sides offers protection or help, and aid workers cannot reach starving communities. John of Greater Reach Alliance explains, “There are no safe corridors for humanitarian aid access inside Sudan right now.”

If Sudanese people cross into a neighboring country, they still struggle to find food, clean water, and shelter. “This is not only in refugee camps, but in Sudan itself, because basic infrastructure has been destroyed,” John says.

“Water systems, electricity – all the things that make up a functioning civil society have been destroyed.”

Hope amid loss

Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023. Since then, at least 59,000 people have lost their lives, and 30 million Sudanese require support to survive.

Church planters supported by GRA offer biblical trauma healing and targeted relief aid. “There’s only one source of healing that we can offer them, and it is the Gospel,” John says.

In dozens of locations, GRA teams encounter Sudanese refugees and displaced families who are desperate for hope. “People are deeply, deeply exhausted, and they’re living under constant fear,” John says.

“They carry such deep trauma from the loss of family, of home, and dignity. This trauma is shaping their daily lives and how they view the future.”

Even in places marked by fear, loss, and displacement, the Lord is drawing people to Himself and bringing His peace.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Greater Reach Alliance)

More than 300 graduates from GRA’s school of mission and 28 church-planting teams are serving Sudanese people in refugee camps in three countries. During every encounter, believers offer the compassion of Christ.

John says the response to believers’ kindness often goes something like this: “We’ve been told Christians were evil. How can you love us like this? We’ve been taught to hate you.”

How to help

UNHCR’s 2026 appeal describes Sudan’s war as the world’s largest displacement, humanitarian, and protection crisis. While humanitarians struggle to raise the funding needed to address needs en masse, you can help Sudanese people directly through GRA.

Your gifts enable Gospel workers to meet physical and spiritual needs. Although it’s primarily a church-planting ministry, GRA’s targeted relief efforts include food, shelter, and medicine as the Lord provides.

“God has miraculously opened the door for us. Even though these ministries weren’t our wheelhouse, God has said, ‘Yes, I’ll be with you,’ and He is,” John says.

“Pray that God would bring into our hands the means to provide food and shelter. We’ve done that many times,” he continues.

“The shelter is a tarp over their head, because that’s all we had, but they’re sitting in the middle of the sun in some of these areas – that’s 110 degrees.”

Pray that the Sudanese people will surrender their lives to Jesus as they encounter Him through the GRA teams. Pray they will accept the Gospel as truth.

“We’ve had our tragedies, and there will be tragedies to come. How do we as Christians get through them? It’s because the Gospel is true,” John says.

Header image is an AI photo generated by ChatGPT. 

Floyd Brobbel with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada says, “Their report claims that since 2009, at least 190,000 Nigerians were killed, and about 70% of that would be Christians. So there seems to be a very clear targeting of the Christian community in northern Nigeria.”

(Photo courtesy Voice of the Martyrs USA)

The report lays out how Nigeria has been hiding the genocide of Christians through misinformation campaigns and misleading narratives. Instead, government officials have described the violence as regional instability and even attributed it to climate change.

“The Christian cry within the North that our government is not doing anything to counteract these problems is true, and it’s well documented.”

Boko Haram and Fulani extremists attack Christian communities and others who stand in the way of their goal to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Brobbel encourages believers around the world to take action for our Nigerian brothers and sisters in Christ.

“We need to be raising a voice and asking our governments to hold the Nigerian government accountable to these things that are happening in their country. Like, what are they doing to counteract these problems?”

(Photo courtesy VOM USA)

Pray also for the persecuted Church in northern Nigeria to be salt and light, so they can reach their persecutors for Christ.

Brobbel urges, “We really need to pray for those that remain and for those that flee, that they would be effective and bold in their Christian faith and continue to proclaim the Gospel courageously, because this is how things change.”

He also asks Christians to pray for Muslim extremists in northern Nigeria, that they would:

• encounter God’s Word and have visions of Jesus.
• have their hearts softened and eyes opened to biblical truth.
• be held accountable for their actions.
• give their lives ultimately to Christ.

Get involved with VOM Canada at vomcanada.com/engage.

Header photo: Nigerian believers pray for intervention. (Photo courtesy of VOM Canada)

Fighting shows no signs of slowing down as a third faction rises to rule. John of Greater Reach Alliance says, “There’s a strong influence from the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to take over through the army.”

Recently designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S., the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood could seek to capitalize on an opportunity. Fractures within the army led to restructuring last week.

(Representative AI photo created with ChatGPT)

“Because of this, coordination within the army is weakened, making it harder to effectively fight the RSF,” John says.

“Our team on the ground thinks it’s more likely to make the war longer than shorter.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have died since the civil war began. Millions are living in displacement camps. One in three Sudanese people needs humanitarian aid to survive.

RSF rule does not promise a brighter future. “If the RSF gains control, there’s a great fear of increased violence,” John says.

“They enacted, on behalf of the previous administration, genocide against black Sudanese tribes in Darfur and the Nuba mountains.”

Hope and help

With the help of Greater Reach Alliance, Sudanese Christians are sharing the hope of Jesus in displacement camps. Read more here.

Ask the Lord to give believers strength. Pray that the war will end soon.

“The best hope is strong international pressure for a return to the civilian leadership that was intended after Bashir was removed,” John says.

(Representative AI photo created with ChatGPT)

“They (civilian leaders) are still in the country. But it would take a very strong international intervention to make a restoration of civilian government possible,” he continues, requesting prayer for Western involvement.

“A return to some kind of civilian leadership is really the answer, because if either side of this conflict wins, the picture for Sudan continues to be extremely bleak.”

Header image depicts a Sudanese combatant with G3 rifle. Steve Evans, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sudan’s civil war, which erupted on April 15, 2023, is a violent power struggle between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces. Civilian deaths continue amid ongoing drone attacks, Radio Dabanga reports, and “the humanitarian situation there is rapidly deteriorating” as fighting blocks aid access.

Strikes also continue throughout Darfur State as the war rages on. Tens of thousands of people were executed in El Fasher, Darfur, in December and January. At least 6,000 people were slain in just three days.

John* partners with dozens of Sudanese church planters. “Many of them are from Darfur,” he says.

“The statistics are not statistics to them; they’re losing family, friends, and property. In the middle of that loss, they’re trusting God.”

Masalit tribal dancers at a 2014 event in Darfur, Sudan.
(Photo courtesy UNAMID via Flickr/CC)

Believers are not only trusting God but also continuing to serve Him. In the refugee camps they now call home, “Where the dominant tribe [in the camp] is Masalit from Darfur, with the greatest persecution and death, there are Masalit house churches,” John says.

“We’ve started literacy classes so they can learn to read and write their own language.”

With the help of Greater Reach Alliance, believers are making Christ known among the Masalit. Consider supporting church planters through GRA here.

“We started in 2018 with the first known two believers from the Masalit tribe,” John says.

“We’ve now graduated [28] from our school, and we have 15 [leaders] involved in (Bible) translation in their language. Our Masalit team translated The JESUS Film and Magdalena film for women.”

Fourteen graduates from GRA’s school of mission lost family and close friends in the massacre at the end of 2025. Pray they will experience the peace only Jesus can offer.

*Pseudonym

Header image is a representative AI photo created by Chat GPT. 

Nmadu says from our standpoint as Christians, genocidal offenses are being committed; but regardless of how the UN or other international organizations choose to label the situation: 

“We can safely say that Christians are being killed in mass with the intention to coerce, to make Christians change their religious conduct,” he affirms. “Freedom of religion, or belief, is being hampered in many parts of Northern Nigeria.”

With land comes economic and political power, and the battle for control sweeps through a complex territory of cultural, political, and religious landscapes. 

Nmadu says he does not believe the present government is aiding the killing of Christians. But the administration’s refusal to take swift action, even in the form of strong rhetoric, reveals a trend towards political correctness. 

“In trying to be politically correct, they become complacent,” he says. “The government – not just this government, even past governments – have not done enough to protect lives of Christians in communities.”

The killings and abductions of thousands of Nigerians have been documented over the last few years. But Nmadu says small numbers aren’t even accounted for in those reports. 

“The evil is just unimaginable, and for a government to come out and deny that there is [any] such thing happening in the country shows their level of responsiveness in protecting lives and property, which is the number one duty of any government in the world,” he says. 

In particular, he believes the government of Nigeria must track down terrorists and hold them accountable to justice. He also thinks the administration needs to address the blasphemy laws being implemented in some Nigerian states by Muslims trying to enforce Sharia law. 

“When we say government is not doing enough, it is allowing the culture of impunity to prevail in the country,” he says. “People are emboldened to commit more atrocities because when one is committed, nothing is done.” 

Nmadu is hopeful that a surge of international interest will be a catalyst for change in Nigeria. 

President Trump has declared Nigeria a country of particular concern and has even threatened to send US troops to the country if measures to stop the genocide are not taken. It’s a move that Nmadu says has pricked the ears of government officials in his home country. 

“And if this is the only thing that this has done, I think it’s a welcome idea,” he says.

Above and featured photos courtesy of Unsplash

The nearly two-year war is only one of many current events dividing people across the world. 

“We are so polarized. ‘If you are not 100% with me, then you are 200% against me,’” says Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center. “This is not right. We need to talk. We need to discuss.”

How should the global Church respond to events in Gaza? Sharaiha first acknowledges the evil in this war. Neither side is innocent. People are dying on both sides, and Hamas still holds 48 hostages.

“In the midst of the whole evil that is around us, I believe that God is still worthy of all the blessings and all the glory,” he says. 

“I [also] want to acknowledge the need for us to go back to the basics and remember what Jesus said about peacemakers: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.’ We are called to love our enemies.”

(Photo courtesy of Nathan Dumlao via Unsplash)

Sharaiha says believers don’t have to understand every aspect of the war in order to respond the right way. He studied the history of the conflict between Israel and Palestine at the United Nations University. Even after receiving lectures from different leaders, not everything was clear to him. 

“But you need to get the Bible. You need to get ‘Who are we? What is our identity?’ We are called to be peacemakers. We are called to love our enemies,” he says. 

Talking about peace is premature in the midst of active war. But one day, people with great wisdom will have to begin that restorative work.

“The governments right now are really calling on both Israel to stop, and Hamas to surrender the hostages and surrender their weapons,” he says.

Even when the fighting ends, a different battle will continue in people’s hearts.

“I am very concerned about people dying today, but also I’m concerned about the one who did not die, next year,” Sharaiha says. “They will be filled with so much hatred, agony, trauma. That’s why we need to make sure that we are preaching Jesus to those people.” 

In the complexities of the Israel-Hamas war, please pray that the Church will be a peacemaker. Pray that the gospel of peace in Christ will reach more people in Gaza and Israel. Pray for the MENA Leadership Center, as it plans training courses that will one day equip leaders for trauma healing and refugee ministry. 

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Marek Studzinski via Unsplash.

Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries says mainstream media narratives push us to choose sides: Israelis or Palestinians? Jews or Muslims? Yet there’s another option for followers of Christ — indeed, more than an option but a divine allegiance.  

“There are a lot of ministries and a lot of people — and we’re included — talking about what’s going to happen the day after the war. Israel doesn’t want this to go on forever. Palestinians don’t, obviously. I think people need to see that the Body of Christ has no boundaries,” Doyle says. 

“For believers, it’s dangerous to take our worldview from the news, because we’re the Body of Christ. We belong to the Kingdom of God, and there are bigger things going on than this war.” 

Uncharted Ministries works with believers across the lines drawn in the Middle East. Doyle says that even in the devastation today, Jews and Muslims are coming to Christ.

“I think we will look back one day and say this was an awakening. It was a horrible thing, the war. Think of all the people that have been killed just even on October 7, 2023 and then as Israel goes into war in Gaza and back and forth,” Doyle says. “But I think we will look back and say, amazingly, God did something [in line with] Romans 8:28, for He can work all things out to the good of those that love the Lord.”

He adds, “We want to see as a result of this horrible time, people that we meet in heaven one day that say, ‘I came to faith in Christ in the worst time in Gaza history’ — or Israel’s or Syria’s, because the Lord is so present, and He’s moving so powerfully.” 

Three calls to action

This Kingdom mindset doesn’t remove the controversy and chaos in the Middle East. But it does reframe it for followers of Jesus. Whatever you think about what’s going on, please take action.

“Number one, we pray for peace. As believers, we pray for all human beings. We want to see Palestinians stop suffering through this. We pray for the Jewish hostages that are still being kept. There’s so many people groups that are affected,” Doyle says.

Photo courtesy of Artem Beliaikin via Unsplash.

“Two, I think this is a wake up call for us in the West that the return of the Lord could be closer than we thought. If you look at Ezekiel 38 and some of the nations that are lining up and what’s happening, it could be [soon].” 

Number three, Doyle says to pray for one more surge of awakening to the gospel across the globe. When that happens in the Middle East, it will make people marvel.

“I’m telling you, if the world can see Jews that love Jesus and Muslims that have come to faith in Christ [who are] reconciled, [who] can love each other, and in some places even worship together — that is something they will never get over, because most people think that is an absolute impossibility,” Doyle says. 

“But then God says, ‘Is anything too hard for me?’ We know [reconciliation in Christ is] possible. We see it in places. We pray for more of that, and when we see it, it’s going to show the world peace can triumph over hatred and it really comes from the Prince of Peace.”

Header photo from October 2023: Israeli pastor and a Palestinian missionary praying over the Gaza Strip from Israel. They love each other as brothers in Christ and they love both people groups. (Photo, caption courtesy of Uncharted Ministries)

Earlier this week, the ICC’s top prosecutor accused top Israeli and Hamas leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“It’s a moral equivalency issue that’s really not fair,” Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says.

“Hamas is a terrorist group. They tried to commit genocide; Israel goes in to get Hamas, and now they’re accused of war crimes.”

The United States immediately condemned the ICC announcement, stating:

We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.

Three judges will review the charges and decide whether to pursue a case. Even if ICC judges issue arrest warrants, Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister won’t face immediate prosecution. However, they could be arrested during travel to an ICC member nation.

“There are some nations where that could happen to Israeli leaders, so they need to be careful,” Doyle says.

Residential buildings destroyed during the first week of intensive bombing by Israeli aircraft.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate. After six months of war, believers have little choice but to leave.

“They’re tired; many people are saying, ‘We’re finished. We can’t live this way anymore,’” Doyle says.

“I was just talking with a Christian leader in Gaza, and he said that there were 900 known Christians in Gaza; now it’s down to 700. They expect that it will be cut in half, at least to 450.”

Pray for the war in Gaza to end. “Pray [for] a massive heart change, that the Gospel will spread through Gaza, and people can see there’s a better way,” Doyle requests.

Support Gospel workers in the region through Uncharted here. “We hope when it’s safe to go in, and the war’s over, that the Gaza Baptist Church will be rebuilt and be a beacon of light in the Gaza Strip,” Doyle says.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Mohammed Ibrahim/Unsplash.

More than eight million Sudanese have been uprooted in the country since then, and at least two million have crossed into neighboring countries. Unknown tens of thousands have died in the conflict, with countless genocide victims buried in mass graves.

“The burden on East Africa is becoming almost untenable,” says John*, an unfoldingWord partner focused on Sudan. “Chad is one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world; South Sudan is THE poorest country, and that’s where refugees are going.”

Church planters trained by John’s organization meet refugees in several border camps. More about that here. Believers see God turn horrific trauma into something good for these refugees.

“[Refugees have] the desperation of having lost everything and being separated from the normal day-to-day life and just living in constant need. Your soul is so thirsty for any hope, and God is reaping a harvest,” John says.

“Many are coming to Christ because, in their desperation, they’re calling out for help. And in their sleep, God is meeting them. It’s a vision of Jesus, a vision of a man in white.”

Church planters introduce refugees to the hope of Christ through biblical trauma healing. Here’s how you can support that work.

“It’s a simple African way of explaining ‘This is what trauma looks like. This is how it can affect the way you think and the way you feel.’ We have them tell their story, validate it, pray for them, and give them the truth of the Word of God that offers hope,” John explains.

“We’re not able to put a country in therapy, but there were 100 people that our team [recently took] through trauma healing. They came to Christ; within two days, there were 200.”

Ask the Lord to provide food for refugees facing famine. Pray they will find the Bread of Life by connecting with church planters.

*Pseudonym

Header image is a graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)’s all-women force liberated Kovan Aidi Khourto from al-Hol. This notorious camp houses tens of thousands of ISIS families and supporters in Syria.

Samuel* with Redemptive Stories says their partners in Iraqi Kurdistan offer trauma healing to former Yazidi captives. One day, a Gospel worker saw a woman enter with sorrow etched on every feature.

Collage depicting the persecution of Yazidis by the Islamic State.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The worker asked if she could pray for the new class member. “The woman who was praying for her saw a vision. And in this vision, she saw the young lady cutting herself,” Samuel says.

“She stopped praying and began to tell her (the Yazidi woman) what she saw, and [the woman said], ‘How did you know that? No one knows about me hurting myself.’”

This Yazidi woman – another Islamic State sex slave – shared her painful story with the Gospel worker who prayed for her. Nearly 50 different men raped her during her time in captivity.

The worker introduced her to the Great Physician and his Gospel hope. “Through that process, this woman was able to find healing in Jesus Christ,” Samuel says.

“She became a believer and is now sharing with others in her community.”

Pray that Redemptive Stories and its partners can continue their vital work among Yazidi survivors. Politicians threaten to shut down all the camps housing displaced Yazidi communities in Kurdistan and force these families to relocate.

“A lot of women found healing through trauma healing care, through dreams and visions, and ultimately through Jesus Christ,” Samuel says.

Pray believers from a Yazidi background will grow in Christ and become bold witnesses.

“Pray for them to keep pressing on amid persecution,” Samuel requests. “One of the young believers – his father was killed for speaking out against the Yazidi religion.”

*Pseudonym

Header image depicts Yazidi women in traditional clothing. (Wikimedia Commons)