Times are tense for North Sudan’s Christians, said Episcopal Bishop of Khartoum Ezekiel Kondo, who was visiting the U.S. in October to meet with the Department of State and major nongovernmental organizations and to speak on a panel at an anti-genocide conference sponsored by Save Darfur.
Since July 9, when South Sudan became an independent country, Christians in the majority Muslim north have been under increasing pressure, Kondo said.
“As far as the north goes, the independence has brought a difference,” he said. Christian government officials and private sector workers have been laid off; the government is introducing full Islamic Sharia law which poses a challenge to the church; and South Sudanese are not being given citizenship. People are leaving or being forced out, and the church in Khartoum has been diminished.
The Suadnese believers in the north are in an extremely precarious position. Do keep them in your prayers.
Right, Dr. LeMarquant, although I’m sure you know much more about the facts on the ground than I do. But as bad as things are in Khartoum, nothing can match how horrendous they are in the Nuba Mountains, where outright genocide is again taking place.
It does make you wonder why the US and NATO were willing to intervene in Libya to oust the brutal tyrnat Khadafi, while no one is seriously talking about a similar campaign to rid Sudan of its far worse dictator, Omar al Bashir. As far as I’m concerned, in a world filled with terrible despots, including the thugs ruling Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran, Sudan has the dubious distinction of suffering from the absolute worst dictator in the world, bar none.
Lord, have mercy.
David Handy+