Source: www.MNNonline.org
Date: May 7, 2024
Sudan (MNN) — Sudan’s army attempts to retake Wad Madani from RSF or paramilitary forces. Meanwhile, thousands of displaced people fear an RSF takeover in El Fasher.
Nearly nine million people have fled their homes in more than a year of conflict. See our full coverage here. One in three Sudanese faces acute hunger, and millions of vulnerable people are on the brink of famine.
What stands between countless thousands of desperate people and the peace and stability they need to survive? In a word, ambition.
Photo of a family in Sudan courtesy of Sudan Envoy/Wikimedia Commons.
“The paramilitary has grievances toward Arabs (government forces) of North and the middle of Sudan,” Reverend Joseph*, an unfoldingWord partner in Sudan, says.
“They (paramilitary) feel they were used to keep them (Arab military) in power, so they want to change the narrative; they want to come to power as well.”
A grocery shop owner in El Fasher tells BBC News that wherever the armies fight, civilians become victims.
“[It] is a chaotic, senseless kind of war for normal Sudanese,” Reverend Joseph says.
When a coup unseated long-time Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Sudanese Christians held hope for a brighter future. Today, that hope is a distant memory as believers face persecution from both sides.
No matter who “wins” this war, “We suspect it will be harder than the Bashir era. Whether [army] or with the [RSF], they are targeting systematically the institution of the Church; they try to demolish all church structures,” Reverend Joseph says.
“They intend, after the war, there will be no Church.”
Pray for strength and endurance as Sudanese Christians continue Bible translation work in neighboring countries. More about that here.
“We are not just [translating] the Bible so that they have Word, but also we are preserving those languages [so they don’t] die,” Reverend Joseph says.
*Pseudonym
Header image depicts a church in Sudan. (Photo courtesy of World Watch Monitor)