Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com
Date: March 10, 2020
by Elizabeth Kendal
On Monday 9 March Sudanese Prime Minister (PM) Abdalla Hamdok (64) was en route to his office when his motorcade was attacked, first with a car bomb, then with gunfire. While the government's armored SUVs were damaged, the PM survived the attempted assassination, essentially unscathed. Whilst nobody has claimed responsibility, arrests have been made. A veteran economist, Hamdok was appointed Prime Minister in August 2019 after an agreement was signed between Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC), which had ousted former president Omar al-Bashir, and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), which continued to press for civilian-led democracy [see RLPB 516 (21 Aug 2019)]. After the attack, PM Hamdok took to twitter to assure the nation that he was 'safe and in good shape'. He even posted an image of himself, working at his desk as the television in background screened news of the incident. 'What happened will not stop the path of change,' he assured the nation.
Since August 2019 Sudan's new government has undertaken numerous bold steps aimed at initiating Sudan's transformation from Arab-Islamist military tyranny to pluralist-secular civilian democracy. On 21 August Raja Nicola Eissa Abdel-Masih, a Coptic Christian woman and judge in Sudan's Ministry of Justice, was appointed to serve on Sudan's 11-member Sovereign Council. On 7 September, in a televised interview on the Al-Arabiya Network, Sudan's new Minister of Religious Affairs, Nasr al-Din Mufreh, explained that Sudan is a pluralistic nation ruled by secular law and invited Sudanese Jews to return and reclaim their Sudanese citizenship. In a remarkable interview published on 3 November in the international Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, Mufreh said Sudan would fight extremism in mosques and empower women in society. He reiterated his invitation to Sudanese Jews and lamented past persecution of Christians, saying property stolen from Sudanese Christians would be returned through court proceedings. 'Christians and all people of other faiths and religions are free to practise their rituals,' he said.
So it was that in December 2019 Sudan's transitional government initiated a phenomenal reversal when it declared Christmas Day a national public holiday. On 25 December, Mufreh and other senior government officials visited Christmas Day services in several churches across Khartoum, including the long-persecuted Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church. Nyaball Ezikel, a South Sudanese woman living in Khartoum, described it as the best Christmas in the 30 years since al-Bashir took power, adding, 'This is also a good step towards the unity of the Sudanese people.' Khartoum University student Amna Azhari (18) told Middle East Eye that it was her first time visiting a church. 'I'm very optimistic and I feel not just the political change but I also feel that we as Sudanese, we are all changing positively,' she said. 'We are becoming more tolerant and loving towards each other. This is the legacy of our great revolution.' On 5 March Sudan's new Minister of Education, Mohamed Al-Amin Al-Toam, told church leaders in Khartoum that the government will consider no longer holding student exams on Christian holidays and Sundays. Furthermore, it will even consider appointing Christian teachers to teach Christianity nationwide. (The announcement actually triggered such a backlash that Christians are unsure what to make of it!) The government has also expressed its intent to abolish the punishment (death) for apostasy on the grounds that it 'puts freedom of opinion and belief at risk and undermines social peace and stability'. A draft of the Miscellaneous Amendments for 2020, which repeals the apostasy punishment, was tabled on 9 March.
PM Abdalla Hamdok has vowed to press ahead on 'the path of change', a transition supported by millions of amazing and courageous Sudanese civilians. But resistance is growing: resistance from Islamists; resistance from military men determined to retain their power and wealth; resistance from a deeply imbedded Islamist-militarist Deep State 30 years in the making; resistance from purged, marginalised and disaffected pro-Bashir loyalists (local and foreign), infuriated by the treatment of their hero, patron or partner. Prominent activist Khalid Omar, secretary-general of the Sudanese Congress Party, was doubtless correct in his assessment that the attempt on Hamdok's life is but the opening of a 'new chapter in the conspiracy against the Sudanese revolution'.
PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR ALMIGHTY GOD WILL
* go before all those seeking to bring justice, peace and liberty to Sudan; may Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of hosts / the commander of heaven's angelic armies) clear and defend Sudan's 'path of change', that the 'door for the word' (Colossians 4:3) might remain open in Sudan.
'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein ... Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in' (from Psalm 24).
* bless those who bless his people; above all, may they be blessed with insight and revelation, so that Sudan's transformation might be not just political, but profoundly and wonderfully spiritual.
* grant divine wisdom, insight, grace and courage to Sudan's long-persecuted Church as she navigates a new and unfamiliar path - a dangerous and very fragile 'path of change'.