 These refugees fled their homes due to violence. Pray for these brethren. Photo: Assist News |
Authorities in South Darfur shut down offices of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) and Sudan Aid, ordering staff off the property and arresting three employees of Sudan Aid.
Agents from the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrived without notice or explanation at the organizations' offices in Nyala early in the morning on April 22, demanding SCC staff hand over keys to the buildings and vehicles and ordering them to leave. NISS agents also closed down a church clinic that was serving the needy in the area.
The day after the closure of the offices in South Darfur, staff members arrived back at work to find more than a dozen security personnel, some carrying arms, cordoning off the compound. The security agents told the employees the offices were closed and to go home. Two days after the closure, Sudan's federal Humanitarian Aid Commission froze the bank accounts of the SCC in Nyala.
Christianity is being treated as a foreign faith in Sudan following the secession of the largely Christian South Sudan last year. About 350,000 ethnic South Sudanese, many of them Christians with no ties to South Sudan, remain in the north under intense pressure to leave.
Pray that believers affected by these closures will not be fearful but trust God (Revelation 2:10). Please pray that southerners living in the north will be protected from harm. Pray that those travelling to the south will make it there safely and will be warmly received and cared for by Christian brothers and sisters.
For more information on the trials Christians face in Sudan, go to the Sudan Country Report.
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