Any truce would be a vital first step toward ending the war that erupted two years ago, triggering a severe humanitarian crisis. Today, famine is widespread, millions are displaced, and more than 40,000 people have been killed.

Flag of the Rapid Support Forces
(Wikimedia Commons)

“This conflict, there is no reason for it,” Ibrahim Adam with the Darfur Christian Association says.

“This conflict must be stopped, and the ceasefire must take place as soon as possible.”

The U.S.-led ceasefire effort aims to lay the groundwork for lasting political dialogue once the immediate humanitarian crisis is brought under control. Adam says Darfur’s believers need to be involved in those conversations, rather than hiding in the background.

“As Christ’s ambassadors, we are the peacemakers,” Adam says. “We need to be integrated into the Sudanese society; we need to show up, especially on the public issues.”

Find your place in the story

Pray first for the war in Sudan to come to an end. Secondly, pray for wisdom as Sudanese Christians weigh next steps. Speaking out in an Islamic environment carries risk – but so does staying silent.

“We’re experiencing conflict because in the age of public issues, we left it to them to decide on our behalf. If we were there in the decision-making, this ongoing conflict was avoidable,” Adam says.

“That disagreement that happened between two belligerents, it was possible that we [could] manage it without reaching this level.”

Pray for the Holy Spirit to soften hearts at all levels of government, including among the two warring factions.

“We believe that the heart of government officials, presidents, and kings is in the hand of the Lord,” Adam says.

“Pray that God will control the hearts of those political leaders in order to soften their hearts and see the suffering. Then the nation will experience peace.”

Header image depicts IDPs at a food distribution center in North Darfur circa 2023. (Wikimedia Commons)

According to one analyst, peace talks in Washington, D.C., give the RSF militia political cover to commit atrocities. Pastor Ibrahim, a Sudanese pastor, tells MNN, “The peace negotiations [have] always been up and down, and always end negatively.”

The United Nations and regional actors call for an immediate ceasefire in El Fasher. Civilians have no access to food, water, or medical supplies, and aid workers are unable to reach them.

More than 260,000 people – including 130,000 children – have been trapped under siege in El Fasher for over a year. “Things are beyond government control,” Pastor Ibrahim says.

“It’s a mess everywhere in Sudan, and there is a lot of pressure.”

Attributing pressure to Islamist non-military sources, Pastor Ibrahim voices concern about ceasefire resistance within Sudan. “They will not take it easy, that’s really the fear,” he says.

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Sudan’s silver lining

Believers throughout Sudan suffer alongside their Muslim neighbors. In some cases, the Church is at the top of the radicals’ hit list. “The Church always is in the middle of the persecution,” Pastor Ibrahim says.

“[The] RSF, when they came to Khartoum, one of the places they attacked immediately was the Church.”

Yet hope remains. “The Bible tells us in the Book of Acts that persecution has been one of the elements of the growth and the extension of the Church,” Pastor Ibrahim says.

“We can testify and tell [of] the number of unreached people who are responding to the Gospel today [compared to] the times of peace.”

Pray for strength and endurance for Sudanese Christians.

“The most important prayer is that the Lord enable the churches and the ministries to stand firm and to be bold, and then seek God’s guidance and protection,” Pastor Ibrahim says.

Pray also for unity. “When we face difficulties from outside and we are divided inside, that makes it harder,” he adds.

Header image depicts a Sudanese combatant with G3 rifle. (Photo courtesy of Steve Evans/Wikimedia Commons) 

Nearly nine million people have fled their homes in more than a year of conflict. See our full coverage here. One in three Sudanese faces acute hunger, and millions of vulnerable people are on the brink of famine.

What stands between countless thousands of desperate people and the peace and stability they need to survive? In a word, ambition.

Photo of a family in Sudan courtesy of Sudan Envoy/Wikimedia Commons.

“The paramilitary has grievances toward Arabs (government forces) of North and the middle of Sudan,” Reverend Joseph*, an unfoldingWord partner in Sudan, says.

“They (paramilitary) feel they were used to keep them (Arab military) in power, so they want to change the narrative; they want to come to power as well.”

A grocery shop owner in El Fasher tells BBC News that wherever the armies fight, civilians become victims.

“[It] is a chaotic, senseless kind of war for normal Sudanese,” Reverend Joseph says.

When a coup unseated long-time Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Sudanese Christians held hope for a brighter future. Today, that hope is a distant memory as believers face persecution from both sides.

No matter who “wins” this war, “We suspect it will be harder than the Bashir era. Whether [army] or with the [RSF], they are targeting systematically the institution of the Church; they try to demolish all church structures,” Reverend Joseph says.

“They intend, after the war, there will be no Church.”

Pray for strength and endurance as Sudanese Christians continue Bible translation work in neighboring countries. More about that here.

“We are not just [translating] the Bible so that they have Word, but also we are preserving those languages [so they don’t] die,” Reverend Joseph says.

*Pseudonym

Header image depicts a church in Sudan. (Photo courtesy of World Watch Monitor)

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.

“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)

Now in its eighth month, Sudan’s war has displaced over six million people, and at least 12,000 have died. Read our full coverage here.

International aid groups targeted by warring factions struggle to reach those in need. Traditional aid distribution methods aren’t working, so organizations are pivoting to adapt.

As explained here:

The current crisis in Sudan demonstrates the importance of exploring alternative pathways toward the provision of life-saving assistance. Relying on fighting factions to provide for the safe passage of aid is, at a certain point, naive given the pattern of violence that has emerged in the fighting thus far.

(Photo courtesy of Michael Starkie/Unsplash)

John*, a Gospel worker focused on Sudan, says larger organizations are “trying now to distribute small amounts of aid through local groups on the ground in Sudan.”

In some locations, because many local aid groups or “committees” are Islamic, “when they find that someone has come to Christ out of Islam, they won’t give them food… whether it (the food) came from the U.N. or some other group,” church partners tell John.

“The view they (Islamic groups) have doesn’t include any compassion for someone who has left Islam, so withholding food is their duty.”

Gospel workers are coming to the rescue. “200 graduates from our school of mission, from 25 tribes, are part of the teams in six locations where refugees are,” John says.

Believers are distributing small amounts of food aid and encouraging people who’ve lost everything. “We’ve been doing that since the beginning of the war through the 28 networks of house churches,” John says.

“They don’t have a lot [of aid], but they (displaced people) may get one meal.”

John adds, “We just sent some money to our team in one of these locations to feed a new group of Christians who come out of Islam because the aid around them is being denied.”

Send help through John’s organization here. Or, “if you’re connected through your denomination to a church in Sudan, try to get a hold of the pastor, who may be a refugee, and say, ‘How can I help?’” John suggests.

*Pseudonym

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of combonianos_brasil/Pixabay.

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.

“Sudan is very rich in natural resources so it should not be the case that people are starving. It all feels very sad,” Fadi Sharaiha with MENA Leadership Center says.

“We’re going to see people dying, whether it’s [from] starvation or lack of medicine, in addition to the war that’s happening.”

The Sudanese army and paramilitary forces are locked in a fierce battle that started on April 15 and shows no signs of stopping. The conflict displaced nearly a million people in one month; roughly 200,000 crossed into neighboring countries.

He can’t go into detail for security purposes, but Sharaiha says, “We do have participants, Christian leaders, from Sudan, and yes, they are affected” by the current turmoil.

Sudanese believers living abroad have “families living in Sudan, so they are also emotionally affected,” he adds.

(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)

MENA Leadership Center trains Gospel workers so they can respond effectively to situations like these. More about that here.

“We are going to ask our partners about trauma healing courses and how to minister to refugees in a professional way, and if there is a need for other courses,” Sharaiha says.

“We love to serve our people in the (MENA) region, especially right now in Sudan.”

Pray fighting will end and peace will return to Sudan. “You can also partner with the MENA Leadership Center by giving scholarships to some of the participants and supporting courses that we’re doing for the people in Sudan,” Sharaiha says.

“If you have any questions or ideas, please connect with us.”

Header image is a 2019 photo depicting shell casings in the Nuba Mountains. (Photo courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA)

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.