New Freedoms For Christians In Sudan
Sudan has had a history of being one of the hardest countries in the world to be a Christian.
In the Sudan, Christians routinely faced war, genocide and poverty. Islam was recognized as the practicing State Religion. This meant that Christian villages faced destruction, Churches were routinely burnt down, properties belonging to Christians were confiscated and under Sharia Law, anyone renouncing their Islamic Faith risked facing the death penalty for apostacy. This is despite Freedom of Religion being enshrined in the Constitution.
For example, In 2014, a Sudanese woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of Apostacy. The then 27 year old’s father was Muslim while her mother was Ethiopian Orthodox. Her father left when she was around 6 years old which meant that she had been raised by her mother as a Christian. But because of her absent father’s faith, the courts considered her to also be a Muslim. A family member reported her marriage to a Christian man and this caused the courts to step in and declare her marriage null and void and her suspected conversion from Islam to be punishable by death. Meriam’s charges were eventually dropped and she was freed from death row after a high profile international campaign saw millions from around the world petition for her release.
In April of 2019, after months of civil unrest, former President Omar Bashir was ousted, having been in power since for close to 30 years. Since then, a transitional civilian-military sovereign council has been formed and a new civilian cabinet has been appointed to run the country for the next three years until a general election can be held. This change in the political situation in Sudan has been a welcome reprieve for Christians in the country.
Christians in the Sudan are now able to freely preach everywhere and without any restrictions. A few weeks after the removal of Omar Al Bashir back in 2019, the Transitional Military Council reinstated Sunday as the official rest day for Christians schools in the country. They followed that up by declaring Christmas a public holiday that same year, something which hadn’t been done for a decade. The Transitional Military Council together with the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) signed a constitutional document that included positive provisions on religious freedom.
The New Prime Minister and Head of the Transitional Government, Mr. Abdalla Hamdok recently congratulated Sudanese Orthodox Christians and wished them well as they celebrated their Easter Holiday on the 2nd of May. This is something that would have been unheard of under the Bashir dictatorship. Mr. Hamdok invited Christians to actively participate in the rebuilding and development of a more accommodating Sudan where everyone can worship in complete freedom. New churches can now be constructed again in various states and Christians schools are now allowed to have classes on Saturday with Sunday being left free as a day of worship.
We welcome these new developments while still recognizing that more still needs to be done to ensure the freedom and safety of our brothers and sisters in Sudan. For example according to the Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO) some Church buildings were burnt down last year and this is after the fall of Bashir’s government.
