In war-torn Sudan, Evangelical Pastor Kowa Shamal narrowly escaped a martyr’s death. “The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) asked me to renounce Christ and recite the Shahada to become a Muslim. I refused, so one of them threatened to shoot me, calling me a pagan,” recounts the pastor, who is one of the leaders of the Sudan Church of Christ (SCOC).
The scene unfolded on October 25 in an RSF-controlled neighborhood north of Khartoum, the capital of the northeast African country of nearly 50 million people. This paramilitary outfit has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 15 of last year. And Sudan’s tiny Christian minority has had to bear the brunt of the power struggle, which has displaced around 8.2 million civilians.
The warring sides are both linked to the Islamic military dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, which fell in the 2019 revolution. The RSF was created by al-Bashir in 2013 to quell the rebellion of marginalized populations in Darfur, a region in western Sudan. Meanwhile, the Sudanese army remains largely dominated by militants from the former regime, opposed to a return to democratic transition promoting equality among citizens.
“Both belligerents dislike Christians and those Sudanese who do not speak Arabic,” explains the surviving Pastor Kowa. His 23-year-old nephew was less fortunate. “He refused to remove the cross he wore around his neck, so the RSF killed him,” the Evangelical leader laments.
More than 150 churches partially destroyed
In a report released on the first anniversary of the war, the NGO Justice Africa Sudan said three Christian religious leaders had been murdered, 153 churches had been badly damaged and six others completely destroyed. Some of these church buildings, like a number of mosques, are collateral damage. But others may have been deliberately targeted.
“It is likely that the army deliberately bombed the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Wad Madani because there were no RSF bases around,” says Dr. Aida Weran, Dean of Office Affairs and professor at Nile Theological College in South Sudan. Weran, who is Presbyterian, showed images of the building’s charred interior – one of the many scenes of destruction, with total repairs estimated at $50 million according to the Sudan Council of Churches.
“We have no evidence that this is a deliberate policy coming from the army command or the RSF,” clarifies Hafiz Ismail, director of Justice Africa Sudan. “Rather, these are individual actions resulting from the stigmatization of Christians. These violations of the Geneva Convention, which protects religious beliefs and practices, calls to mind the forced conversions of the South Sudanese and Nuba people in the 1990s.”
Other documented acts of violence
The report from Justice Africa Sudan documents attempts at conversion under the threat of weapons, along with many other acts of violence towards Christians. A paramilitary squad wounded two priests and eight worshipers on May 14 at Mar Girgis Church in the city of Omdurman. A few days earlier, a Coptic accountant also found himself face to face with the RSF, who had looted his parents’ house. “They told me that God punished us because we are bad people,” recounts the man, who prefers to stay anonymous.
Even when the war ends, religious minorities fear that persecution will become worse. “This conflict is not ideological. But the fighters will show their true faces once the guns fall silent,” a Catholic deacon predicts.
Messages of tolerance during the government’s transition period were forgotten soon after the October 25, 2021 coup, which was perpetrated jointly by the two military generals currently at odds – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the army, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”), who commands the RSF.
Government persecution of Christians has long preceded the current civil conflict in Sudan, however. Pastor Kowa was imprisoned in 2015 for attempting to evangelize Muslims. And the SCOC secretary-general was just arrested this past April 13. The RSF is demanding 2 million Sudanese pounds (approximately US$1,800) for his release.
Source link : https://international.la-croix.com/religion/christian-minorities-are-more-than-collateral-damage-in-sudans-civil-war
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Publish date : 2024-04-16 07:00:00
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