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FIRST ON FOX: Sudan’s two million Christians are among the hardest hit by the country’s two-year civil war, with Fox News Digital being told some are having to eat animal feed and even grass to survive.
Sudan is the fifth-worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to Open Doors’ World Watch List. Open Doors is a faith-based nonprofit aiming to raise awareness of global persecution.
It is the world’s largest displacement — between 13 million and 15 million have been forced from their homes, and an estimated 150,000 have been killed since the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) started fighting in April 2023. The civil war’s roots lie in tensions following the 2019 ousting of President Omar al-Bashir.
Christians, an estimated 4% of Sudan’s population, suffer from a double whammy of desperation. Like the rest of Sudan’s people, they face chronic food shortages and the horror of war. But Christians are also allegedly singled out for discrimination and persecution by both sides in the conflict.
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A Sudanese man walks in the courtyard of a church in the Um Gulja former refugee camp in Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state on December 15, 2023. Many refugees and asylum seekers fleeing the current war in Khartoum and other areas across Sudan have been seeking refuge in Um Gulja, a refugee camp that was closed down some 20 years ago but with the latest war that broke up in Spring 2023 started receiving displaced people again. (Photo by EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images) (Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached a senior Sudanese church leader working with colleagues on the ground in the country and the region. Talking from an unidentified location and withholding his identity for his safety, he told Fox News Digital, “Christians are seen as an enemy for both warring parties, and even the political parties. Sudan is considered as a land of one religion and one race.”
He continued, “When even NGOs want to distribute food, the category of people who will receive this relief is controlled by government. So, government in these places doesn’t give it to minorities. Often Christians here have been told, ‘Unless you leave your Christianity, no food for you.’”
“Since Sudan’s civil war erupted more than two years ago, Christians have faced relentless persecution at the hands of both warring parties,“ Mariam Wahba, research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. “More than 165 churches have been forced to close. In 2023, RSF fighters stormed Khartoum’s Anglican cathedral, assaulting civilians and converting it into a military base, while SAF airstrikes leveled the Al Ezba Baptist Church in Khartoum North. Both sides have also carried out arbitrary detentions, with SAF interrogating and beating dozens of Christians in 2024 and 2025.”
The Pentecostal church in Bahri was demolished by the government for re-zoning even though it was built 30 years ago.
“The RSF has been especially violent in Wad Madani (central Sudan), Wahba continued. “In December 2024, its fighters set fire to the Evangelical Church of Wad Madani, and later that month attacked the Sudanese Church of Christ in Al Jazirah State during a prayer service, wounding 14 worshippers. One militant reportedly vowed to ‘eliminate all Christians.’”
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“RSF militants have allegedly forced Christians to convert to Islam in exchange for aid and protection. It’s important to remember that the RSF is the latest incarnation of the Janjaweed militias, infamous for their campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur two decades ago. That legacy of terror is now being carried out again.”
“Together, these abuses have left Christians among the war’s most vulnerable victims,” Wahba concluded.
The Evangelical church in Omdurman after being bombed even though it was not in a combat zone or used by any warring forces. (Open Doors)
The Sudanese church leader Fox News Digital talked to this week believes the situation is especially bad for Christians in El Fasher, a city under siege by the RSF. “For a long time now they’re eating animal feed and grass. No wheat, no rice, nothing can get in. And unfortunately now, no medicine — if you have just the flu it can kill you. We don’t know what to do. We are just always asking God [to] have mercy on us.”
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Since the April 2023 outbreak of conflict in Sudan, we have witnessed significant backsliding in Sudan’s overall respect for fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom. This backsliding especially impacts Sudan’s marginalized ethnic and religious populations, including Christians.”
The spokesperson continued, “Sudan was a Country of Particular Concern under the former Bashir regime, and the United States is focused on preventing the return of Bashir-era loyalists and other violent extremists who might reimpose particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
A predominantly Christian camp in north Sudan. (Open Doors)
“In order to safeguard U.S. interests, to include the protection of religious freedom in Sudan, U.S. efforts seek to limit negative Islamist influence in Sudan’s government and curtail Iran’s regional activities that have contributed to regional destabilization, conflict and civilian suffering.”
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Today in Sudan, there is desperation. The Sudanese church leader added, “For Christians, it’s forbidden even to pray in your home as a group in many places now. Logically there is no hope because it [Sudan] will become more radical. But I believe in God who can turn the curse to blessing. And we pray that the church continues to be like a light and salt in our country.”
