ICC Note: Sudan has seen a rise in Christian persecution as countless churches have been either burned to the ground or demolished by local authorities. Nearly every incident has been in some way connected to the Sudanese government as they state the buildings were either build illegally without proper permits or built on government owned land meant for commercial development. The Sudanese government declared no new church construction in the country after South Sudan seceded in 2011 as a result of a civil war which ravaged the region from 1983-2005. The declaration is merely a portion of President Al-Bashir’s mission to eradicate all religious minorities and foreign nationals to rule Sudan under strict Sharia Law.
11/12/2015 Juba, South Sudan, (Morning Star News) – After bulldozing a Lutheran Church of Sudan (LCS) building on Oct. 21, authorities in the Karari area of Omdurman demolished the SCOC building on Oct. 27 without prior warning, church leaders said. Local authorities said the SCOC building was on government land, a claim church leaders adamantly denied.
“It seems that the government is systemically targeting churches in these times,” one church leader told Morning Star News. “They did not give us notice before the demolition.”
Church leaders said they have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Religious Guidance and Endowment but have received no response.
Karari officials in Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum, reportedly authorized the demolition of the church building claiming it was built on government land allocated for a field. In the demolishing of the LCS church on Oct. 21, the local authorities said it was built on land allocated for business, though a mosque stands nearby.
The SCOC church, which has 120 members, was established in 1998.
SCOC church leaders said they would find it difficult for their congregation to find a place for Bible study and Sunday services in coming weeks. The Sudanese Minister of Religious Guidance and Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population.
Members of the SCOC church said they had decided to hold Sunday worship in the open air at a nearby field early in the morning, before temperatures climb.
