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. 

Sudan’s civil war started three years ago, with strong evidence of genocidal violence in Darfur, but few in the West pay attention.

“There’s genocide after genocide, and oftentimes it doesn’t make the news because there’s other conflicts that are more germane to United States politics,” Jesse Griffin of unfoldingWord says.

Sudan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with war, famine, and economic collapse all overlapping. There’s no clear path to peace, and violence is intensifying rather than slowing.

Yet hope remains. “The Gospel continues to expand in Sudan, and it’s wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit is still at work,” Griffin says.

“Our brothers in Sudan will say that, because of the conflict, there’s a huge receptivity to the Gospel.”

Refugee camps become ministry centers

The Lord is working through Sudanese church planters who partner with unfoldingWord to do Bible translation.

“Our partners at Greater Reach Alliance have trained people from 89 different tribes in Sudan,” Griffin says. “These people are going back to their communities and sharing the Gospel, starting churches, and making disciples.”

Using the Scriptures they’ve completed, translators eagerly share the Gospel in their language communities.

“They have adopted a method that integrates translation into the life of the church and their ministry,” Griffin says.

“On a weekly basis, they are not only understanding Scripture, translating it, applying it, but they’re also ministering it in their church context, and they’re proclaiming it in the refugee camps.” 

Translators press on

(Photo courtesy unfoldingWord)

Teams are completing the New Testament in Sudanese Arabic and Masalit this year. Sudanese Arabic teams will finish work on the Old Testament in 2027. Support these efforts through unfoldingWord here.

“Because we have empowered the people to do it (Bible translation) themselves and they don’t need outside help to do the work, it’s actually progressed in spite of the war,” Griffin says.

“It (translation) doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out, seven-or-10-year process. They’re actually using Scripture as they work on it.”

Many Muslims are turning to Christ after hearing the Gospel in their heart language.

“Pray for their protection because many of them, [as] soon as they make that decision, their lives are in jeopardy from those closest to them,” Griffin requests.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

Instead, the conflict is escalating as it enters its third year today. The Rapid Support Forces have killed more than 300 people in two aid camps since Thursday.

unfoldingWord partners are among the 14 million people forced to flee their homes. “All of their lives are at risk, and they’re all worried about their families,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

“Most of them have experienced being displaced, yet they’re still working [and] translating the Bible for their people,” he continues.

“They see the Gospel and people meeting Christ as the only thing that will save their country.”

Scripture in minority languages

unfoldingWord teaches indigenous church planters how to translate God’s Word into their heart languages. More about that here. “There are 11 Bible translation teams working in Sudan’s unreached people group languages,” Dane says.

“Our partners there have completed drafting 20 New Testament books into Sudanese Arabic. They’ve drafted and have done the secondary checking on five Old Testament books.”

“They see the Gospel and people meeting Christ as the only thing that will save their country.”
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

One minority language group, for whom Sudanese Arabic is a second language, works parallel with the Sudanese Arabic translation team. “The [group was] able to tell the guys doing the Sudanese Arabic work, ‘Wow, these are excellent tools. Thank you so much. We’re using them right away,’” Dane says.

“The [group] has already translated our unfoldingWord Open Bible Stories, which are 50 Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation, for evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and translation training,” he continues.

“They’ve been trained to use all our tools, and they’ve completed five books so far: Jonah, 3 John, 1 Timothy, Ruth, and Esther. So that’s where things stand regarding the actual translation progress.”

Courage in action

This translation work doesn’t happen in a vacuum but within the context of persecution and risk. When Sudan’s war began, Dane interviewed the head of unfoldingWord’s partner organization, who says Sudanese church planters know their Gospel work puts them in harm’s way.

“He said, ‘In Sudan, if you’re going to obey Christ and plant churches and preach the Gospel, your life is forfeit. We carry our death certificates in our pocket,’” Dane recalls.

“They know they may die doing this, and yet they do it anyway because they love God and their countries.”

Now that you know, could you hit the “share” button? “With Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, Sudan is getting ignored,” Dane says.

“Share their story as much as you can on social media.”

Additionally, you can help this vital translation work continue in Sudan by giving to unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” project. Your support drives a holistic process that reaches remote regions, equips communities with the tools they need, and trains church leaders to bring the Bible to life for new generations.

*Name withheld for security purposes.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord.

“What they are doing is like ISIS. A week or ten days ago, they killed 800 in a day – 800,” John says. “They’re taking the women, and they say, ‘You will become my next wife.’ If [the woman] says ‘No,’ they kill them.”

Yet, hope remains. In the countries surrounding Sudan, “We have teams in six locations where Sudanese refugees are. Our teams are doing trauma healing and listening to people’s stories,” John says.

“God is at work, and He is greater than the enemy.”

Along with helping people from the Masalit tribe process their trauma, believers share the hope of Christ.

“There are 10 Masalit believers that our organization trained. They are baptizing people coming to Christ every week,” John says.

According to Joshua Project, Sudan is full of unreached people groups (UPGs.) Since Sudan was under strict Islamic rule for decades, the vast majority of these UPGs are Muslim.

Many people who belong to UPGs are now on the run because of the war. They’re meeting Christians and hearing the Gospel for the very first time.

“Refugees from Sudan, who come from tribes that have no believers or only a handful of believers, in one week, 40 came to Christ” in one location sheltering refugees, John says.

“This [development] is groundbreaking in evangelism amongst Sudanese Muslims.”

*Pseudonym

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

As global attention remains riveted on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Sudan’s atrocities go unnoticed. Hastily-dug mass graves confirmed by satellite imagery hold proof of genocide in Darfur.

“Sudanese are being killed, tortured, and displaced by their own people. The influx of refugees and displaced [people] has overwhelmed humanitarian systems. Aid workers are being killed; trucks of aid are being looted before they even get to a destination,” says John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan.

“That inevitable nexus – war, displaced people, lack of food, lack of water – is coming to a head.”

Yet the world remains indifferent. John describes three possible reasons why Sudan remains in the shadows. First, ignoring Sudan’s crises “is kind of a historical thing. Sudan went through two genocides by the government of Omar Bashir, and they didn’t get in the news either,” John says.

Secondly, “Sudan is not an international political figure. They’re not a greatly developed country, like Egypt or even Kenya,” he continues.

“The third thing is that the world is becoming war and refugee-weary.”

Arab militia known as Janjaweed are terrorizing Masalit communities in Sudan, particularly in the Darfur region.
(2004 U.S. State Department photo)

Will you speak up for Sudan? Genocide isn’t the only atrocity taking place, according to John’s Sudanese partners.

“The warring factions are taking this opportunity to try to eliminate the church on the ground in Sudan,” John says.

“When and if peace comes, they’re trying to make it so the church does not survive. They’re targeting and bombing significant church buildings, purposely destroying them, or confiscating them for their headquarters.”

Send relief aid through John’s organization here. Praise the Lord for sustaining hope as only He can.

“This war has driven Christians and Muslims into the same geographical areas,” John says.

“Those geographical areas are not Islam-dominated, so they (Sudanese people) have the freedom to think outside of Islam. And God is doing some absolutely amazing things.”

*Pseudonym

Header image courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA.

“People are killed in their homes and the streets; women and girls are raped; hundreds of thousands are fleeing Sudan, and Arab fighters are scorning ethnic Africans as slaves. That has been going on for over a decade, but [one thing is] different now,” says John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan.

“Because of the war, there’s no restraint. There’s no effort by the government to present itself to the world as a civilized country.”

More than 100 of Sudan’s 570 tribes call the Darfur region “home.” “The Masalit, the third largest tribe in Darfur, has suffered more than any other people group in the country from the current war,” John says.

“The devastation is horrific, and the stories cannot be repeated, or people reading this report would not sleep.”

Yet hope remains. We cannot name John or his organization for security reasons, but he says, “By God’s grace, we’ve seen Masalit come to the Lord in the last three years, and they’ve started a house church among the Masalit refugees.”

The majority of the Masalit have not heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. This is due in part to their geographical isolation.
(Map, caption courtesy of Joshua Project)

Although the Masalit are primarily Muslim, the Gospel is making inroads.

John says Masalit believers are “in the tens, not in the hundreds, but they are positioned with their people” as witnesses during this uncertain time.

“We know them (Masalit believers) personally; we train them. They have translated passages of Scripture and the JESUS Film in Masalit.”

As The Voice of the Martyrs USA explains, Sudan is one of the world’s most challenging places to know and follow Jesus. Yet the current crisis is giving believers unprecedented opportunities to share their faith.

“Because they (displaced Masalit people) are on the border, they’re away from the normal restraints” governing Sudan, John says.

“The Gospel is a message of hope, and people are willing to listen as never before.”

Pray for healing and Gospel growth as the Masalit encounter the God of the Bible. Ask the Lord to comfort Masalit believers and give them strength to endure devastating loss.

“They’ve just lost everything. Their homes were burned, their families have been killed, and yet they stand in the middle of this [crisis] proclaiming and living out Christ Jesus. What a powerful thing,” John says.

*Pseudonym

Header image is a 2009 photo depicting Masalit men at a refugee camp near Darfur. (Wikimedia Commons)