Praying for the Persecuted Church in Lent - Sudan
Country: SUDAN
For several decades Sudan was racked by a civil war waged by the Arab Islamic government in the North against the African population in the South, which is predominantly Christian. The conflict originated in the government’s attempts to Islamise the South, latterly by the imposition of sharia law. Around two million Southerners were killed and some five million displaced, but the influx of refugees into the North led to the establishing of many active churches there. There was also dramatic church growth in the South.
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A peace deal was agreed in 2005, which has given the South considerable autonomy. However, rebuilding the infrastructure that had been destroyed in the war is proving to be a long and slow process. Christians in the South are also vulnerable to the brutal campaign of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Conditions also remain difficult for Christians, especially converts from Islam, in the North. Sharia law is in force there, and Christians may be punished for any infringement of it. Converts from Islam are punishable by death, and even though the sentence is seldom imposed, they may face violence from their families or persecution by the authorities. Christian activities are subject to control, and Christians are excluded from government and the professions. Most Northern schools are Qur‘anic, and children of Christian families are especially vulnerable to abduction and enslavement.
Many of the Southern Christians living in the North also have to cope with scarcity and unemployment, which leave them more vulnerable to the effects of natural disaster. In August 2009 floods demolished homes and a church in a camp for displaced people near Khartoum, and there was little prospect of rebuilding in the near future owing to prohibitive costs.
The history of Sudan has produced a mainly Muslim North and a mainly Christian South. The proportion of Christians in the whole country is around 23%, but in the South it is nearer 70%.
In November 2009 Silva Kashif, a 16-year-old Christian girl in Muslim-majority Khartoum, was given 50 lashes for wearing a knee-length skirt, which the authorities considered to be “indecent” according to sharia law.
- Pray that the government will soften the grip of sharia for Christians in the North.
- Pray too that the promised referendum on independence for the South will take place and that the result will enable Southern Christians to live in safety and freedom, and that those still in the North can return home.
