Sudanese Company Takes Over Church Property

(Compass) – The commercial company claiming ownership of a disputed church property in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum moved into the building last week, ignoring a court injunction barring use of the property. Representatives of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) told Compass that they discovered at a March 15 court hearing that the United Al Azra Company had taken possession of their church headquarters, first confiscated at police gunpoint 10 months ago. When church officials appealed to Judge Wahhabi Ibrahim of the Khartoum Public Court to enforce the court injunction, he reportedly brushed aside the complaint, as well a request from the church to post a guard at the property. Over the past decade, the Khartoum regime has followed a repeated pattern of aggression against the ECS, the largest Christian church in Sudan .