NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — An attack on a Coptic Christian church during Mass on Sunday (May 14) in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum is drawing attention to the plight of Christians in the northeastern African country, where a raging civil war is forcing out Christian clerics.
The attack on the Coptic Mar Girgis (St. George) Church in Omdurman, across the Nile River from the capital, came as church leaders in neighboring South Sudan are urging dioceses and parishes to open their doors to priests, nuns and other religious people fleeing the deadly violence.
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“Many of our people and some clergy and religious have arrived at border points,” wrote Roman Catholic Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in a May 5 letter to all clergy, monks and nuns in Sudan. “It is also clearer now that some of the church structures in Sudan have been vandalized and destroyed.” He appealed to Catholics in his own country “to open your houses to receive your brother priests and religious.”
The Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, both headed by rival generals looking to gain control over the country, have engaged in fierce battles since April 15.
The power struggle between the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF’s commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, has resulted in the deaths of 676 people and more than 5,576 injured, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Khartoum is also suffering severe shortages of food and other basic supplies.
Both sides blamed the other after bullets struck and injured several worshippers during Sunday’s Mass.
File – Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo waves to a crowd during a military-backed tribe’s rally, in the Nile River state, Sudan, Saturday, July 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Hjaj, File)
“The attack on the church is very unfortunate. We continue to urge the two sides to respect places of worship and avoid battles in civilian areas,” Francis Kuria Kagema, general secretary of the African Council of Religious Leaders, told Religion News Service. “We urge the two generals to accept ceasefire and agree to peace negotiations.”
Other churches have been damaged in the fighting. On April 24, two rockets struck the grounds of the Our Lady Queen of Africa, the Roman Catholic cathedral in El-Obeid, southwest of Khartoum. The blasts destroyed parts of the rectory and the cathedral’s main gate. After an April 17 attack on Khartoum’s All Saint’s Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican primate, soldiers from RSF occupied it and used it as a military base.
In early May another Coptic church was hit with a rocket, and an Evangelical Presbyterian church in Bahri, a Christian neighborhood of Khartoum, was set ablaze when a nearby munitions depot exploded.
An estimated 91% of the 45.6 million population are Muslims, while Christians make up 5.4%. About 2.8% follow traditional religions, according to Pew Research Center.
