Sudan Arrests 5 Pastors for Preaching the Gospel in Crackdown on Christians

By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian Post

Pastors in Sudan are speaking out against the arrests of five church leaders last week for allegedly "disturbing the peace," and said that Christians are being punished by the government for preaching to Muslims and living out the New Testament.

"The government is using the court of law to persecute Christians who are peaceful in carrying out their mandate as commissioned in the New Testament. After spending 14 months in a jail in Khartoum, I was released this year in January due to lack of evidence. I was again arrested this Sunday for unfounded reasons," Pastor Kuwa Shamal, who has been arrested on a number of occasions without charge, told International Christian Concern in a statement released on Monday.

ICC, a persecution watchdog group that reports on attacks against Christians worldwide, said that the five church leaders are all from the Sudanese Church of Christ, and includes the Rev. Ayoub Matin, evangelist Habail Abraham, the Rev. Ali Haakim, Pastor Ambrat Hammad, and elder Abdo Elbaya.

"Why is the government coercing us to surrender the leadership of the church to a select committee? What crime have we done?" Shamal asked.

The Rev. Ayoub Tiliyan, chairman of the SCOC, explained that the persecution of Christians has been rising this year in the African country.

"It is very disturbing to see the government that we obey, pray for, and pay taxes to harass members of the society just because they belong to a different faith," Tiliyan said.

"This has become the norm over the years, with threats heightening in the past three years. Several churches have been demolished, pastors arrested, and evangelists warned against preaching the Gospel to Muslims."

The Islamic-majority nation has seen at least four Christian churches closed in Khartoum so far this year, with the government planning to demolish another 20 houses of worship.

SCOC, which is part of a reformed denomination, has been targeted on a number of occasions, with another seven Christian leaders arrested in another incident in August.

The pastors were reportedly held for refusing to comply with an order from a government agency demanding they give up leadership of the church.

The pastors were later released on bail, with Shamal telling Morning Star News at the time that Christians will continue opposing government efforts to impose committees on the church.

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Sudan Arrests 7 Pastors Who Refused to Give Gov't Control of Denomination

Christian Church in Sudan (PHOTO: REUTERS / MOHAMED NURELDIN ABDALLAH)

By Samuel Smith

Christian Post

Authorities in the overwhelmingly Sunni nation of Sudan have arrested seven Christian leaders and forced six others into hiding amid the government's demand that they fork over denominational leadership, sources said.

Citing multiple sources, Morning Star News reports that the seven pastors were arrested and detained for over six hours last Wednesday in Omdurman over their refusal to comply with an order from a government agency demanding they give up leadership of the Sudanese Church of Christ, a reformed denomination, to a government-appointed committee.

Among those arrested were SCOC Moderator Rev. Ayoub Mattan and SCOC's head of missions, Kuwa Shamaal. The church leaders were later released on bail. 

The Rev. Kwa Shamaal. (Morning Star News)

The pastors reportedly said that they received a letter from Sudan's Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments dated Aug. 14, ordering them to forfeit leadership of the denomination to the government-appointed church committee.

It was after the clergymen refused to comply with the order that authorities lodged cases against them, the sources added. 

The church leaders believe that the government's request for them to step down is contrary to the rules of the SCOC constitution, which calls for the committee to be elected every three years.

According to Morning Star News, the elected terms of Shamaal, Mattan and the other members of the SCOC's executive committee are set to expire in March 2018.

Along with Shamaal and Mattan, those arrested last Wednesday include SCOC Finance Secretary Abdulbagi Ali Abdulrahaman, SCOC Deputy Finance Secretary El-Amin Hassam Abdulrasool and SCOC pastors Yagoub Naway and Musa Kodi.

According to the report, six other church leaders are now in hiding after learning of the cases against them.

Shamaal had previously been arrested in 2015 and was jailed with Czech aid worker Petr Jasek. He was released in January 2017 due to insufficient evidence.

"Police asked if we still maintain our stance on our refusal to acknowledge the committee appointed by the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments, and we said yes, because it is not the work of the [government] ministry to appoint committees for the church," Shamaal told Morning Star News.

Sudan ranks as the fifth worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2017 World Watch List.

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Christian Refugee Children Denied Food Unless They Recite Islamic Prayers in Sudan

Sudanese Children

By Stoyan Zaimov

Christian Post

Christian children in Sudanese refugee camps are being denied food unless their recite Islamic prayers, a Roman Catholic charity reports.

An Aid to the Church in Need worker said that the children from South Sudan are in a "terrible situation" at the camps in neighboring Sudan.

"We have heard stories where children are conditioned to say Islamic prayers before [being] given food. This is not right. These children are Christian. They should be respected for that," said the ACN source, who chose to remain anonymous.

The contact estimated that as many as 700,000 South Sudanese Christians are refugees in Sudan.

"The majority are left in camps, some in a very terrible situation. They are confined in those places. They are not allowed to go further north to the cities," the source added.

ACN added that the refugees who've fled South Sudan's ongoing civil war need government assistance to survive, but monthly food parcels for a whole family barely last over two weeks.

What is more, the Islam-dominated government of Sudan has reportedly been hampering church agencies.

"The government knows very well that the Church is the body in the world that supports enormously the needy around the world."

"The Muslim community have a charity, so the Christians have a charity, so that possibility should be given so that the people are supported," the contact said.

He compared the suffering refugees to the young Jesus Christ who fled with his parents to Egypt as a child.

"We call on humanity to have heart for refugees," the source urged. "Refugees should be given genuine respect, dignity and their rights should be respected."

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