Sudan: Troops bomb refugees fleeing persecution
The Sudanese military are accused of dropping five bombs on the Yida refugee camp in Unity State, South Sudan where 20,000 refugees escaping violence and persecution are housed. The camp is home to people from the Nuba Mountains where northern troops are targeting groups considered 'disloyal' to the northern regime. The Nuba people are mainly Christian and northern President Omar al-Bashir vowed to enforce strict Sharia or Islamic law across Sudan when South Sudan became an independent nation in July. Christians in the Yida camp told the US Commission on International Religious Freedom that they are being targeted and pastors reported churches being burnt and looted, and soldiers killing Christians for being 'enemies of Islam'. One of the bombs landed in a schoolyard, but failed to explode. 300 children were in class at the time.
Pray: for all affected by persecution and destruction of property to know God’s peace and have their prayers answered. (Ps.4:3)
Sudan: To be a Muslim state
Sudan’s current constitution theoretically grants freedom of religion, recognising that the state is ‘multi-religious’. On Wednesday 12th October Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said he plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution and strengthen Sharia law, raising the threat level for Christians and other non-Muslims in a ‘Muslim state’. He said, ‘98% of the people are Muslims and the new constitution will reflect this. The official religion will be Islam and Islamic law the main source of the constitution.’ It comes amid reports of increasing threats and pressure on churches in Sudan and targeted assaults on Christians, pastors and churches in the border region of South Kordofan, which has been under attack by the Sudanese military.
Pray: for the safety of over a million Christian southerners still living in Sudan, as well as for non-Muslim and non-Arab northerners. (Ps.20:1)
Sudan: Thousands flee burning and looting by North Sudan forces
Thousands of civilians have been displaced following the occupation of Abyei Town by the Sudan Armed Forces at the weekend. Christian Solidarity International reported that 20,000 desperate civilians fled across the river Kiir and are sheltering under trees from the rain. The UN Mission in Sudan reports burning and looting by northern forces in Abyei Town and members of the UN Security Council have demanded that North Sudan withdraws its 5000-strong force from the area. Oil-rich Abyei is a disputed region with northern Sudan and newly-formed South Sudan both staking a claim for an area inhabited permanently by nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms. Abyei is a key part of the comprehensive peace agreement that ended a civil war that ravaged the country since 1983.
Pray: for God to remove the spiritual atmosphere of war and destruction that remains over the area. (Ps.37:16,17)
More: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2011/s11050147.htm
Sudan: Tens of thousands flee fighting
Tens of thousands of people have fled clashes in the oil-rich Abyei region on the border between north and south Sudan, leaving the town of Abyei almost empty, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Friday. Fighting broke out on Tuesday between fighters from the Misseriya tribe, which supports the government in Khartoum in the north, and the Ngok Dinka people who back the south which has voted to secede. At least 70 people were killed and two villages razed in two days of clashes north of Abyei, a spokesman for the army in the south said last week. ‘Since yesterday, tens of thousands of people have fled the town, leaving it mostly empty,’ MSF said Friday. On Thursday the United Nations ordered extra peacekeepers to the region. Abyei did not take part in a referendum in January in which southern Sudan voted to secede from the north. Pray: for peace and reconciliation between the Misseriya and Ngok Dinka people. (Ps.37:37) More: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFn4kCI9kgrcOmdlb1-s8G-EzEZQ?docId=CNG.0f69b85278e292f4cec1b79291e88739.651
Sudan: South plans mass return ahead of referendum
South Sudan is preparing to repatriate 1.5 million southerners from the north and Egypt ahead of a referendum due next January on whether the South should separate from the North. The proposals suggest returnees travel on trains, buses, and boats. Two million people have already returned to the south since the end of a two-decade conflict. (The great challenge for Christianity in the Sudan has been clashes where religion was a pivotal factor. The North with roughly two-thirds of Sudan's land and population is Muslim and Arabic-speaking. The South’s identity is indigenously African with Christian influences and a Western orientation.) If the report ‘Come Home to Choose’ is implemented thousands of people would arrive daily to an underdeveloped region struggling to cope with its current population. There are warnings of possible violence against southerners living in the north if the south votes to break away from the largely Muslim and Arab north. Pray: for God to help Sudan move towards establishing a peaceful identity. (Ps.25:4)
Sudan: Rescue effort launched
Barnabas Fund is to airlift 2,000 needy and vulnerable Christians stranded in Sudan to safety and a new life in South Sudan. The first of 12 chartered flights are due to leave Khartoum for Juba on September 7th. Approximately 800 women (two-thirds are widows and 1,200 children) will be transported from makeshift shelters in flood conditions to the South. They are among hundreds of thousands of people of Southern origin who remain trapped in Sudan, having been stripped of their citizenship after the South voted to secede. Many have now made their own way to South Sudan but the poorest and most vulnerable do not have the resources. As well as being impoverished, Christians in Sudan are extremely vulnerable, as Islamist President Omar al-Bashir has made it clear that they are not welcome and repeatedly declared his intention to make the next constitution 100% Islamic and strengthen sharia law.
Pray: for the most vulnerable to be able to reach their extended families in the South and that NGO’s will be able to help with their practical needs. (Ps.132:15)