Calls to Pray for Southern Sudanese Christians Ahead of Peace Talks

Ahead of the Inter-Sudanese peace talks scheduled to begin on Sept. 15, Christians are calling for prayers for Southern Sudanese, who now face increased persecution, according to reports.
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In an interview published on Monday by Mission Network News (MNN), the Persecution Project Foundation (PPF) raised the call for prayer as its international team of investigators examines wreckage from the late-July crash that killed Sudan's Christian Vice-President Dr. John Garang.

PPF’s Brad Phillips recently returned from his three-month trip to Sudan and its surrounding areas. Philips told MNN that increased persecution on Southern Sudanese Christians has been observed following the Vice-President Garang’s death, though the actual number has not been reported in the media.

Phillips informed MNN of some local reports that say there were perhaps more than 1,000 Southern Sudanese Christians were killed. These attacks are believed to be coordinated by Sudan's Khartoum central government and the mosque, the reports claimed.

Apart from killings, Phillips reported, "There were hundreds of homes of Christians that were demolished on the outskirts of Khartoum." These Christians were forced to flee from Southern Sudan due to the long civil war in Darfur.

"We need to pray that peace will really take hold in Sudan,” Phillips told MNN, “and that this time of peace will be used as an opportunity for Sudan to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and that Christians will be involved in helping establish the infrastructure that's really needed to develop the country, but especially the spiritual foundation."

In Sudan, the northern regions are predominantly Muslim while the southern regions are almost entirely Christian. Sudan's Khartoum central government in the north governs the country based on the Islamic Sharia law, and so the rights of Sudanese Christians are often oppressed.
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In addition, many Christians have died during the two-decade-long civil war in Darfur, south of Sudan, which has displaced more than 2 million people and claimed 1.5 million lives.

In early July, former southern Sudan rebel leader, Dr. John Garang, was appointed the vice-president of Sudan's Khartoum central government. Because Garang was a self-professed Christian, his inauguration had brought much hope to Sudanese Christians. The South was expecting to enjoy certain degrees of independence under Garang's governance and not be governed under Islamic Shaira law. However, in less than one month, Dr John Garang died in a suspicious helicopter crash near the Sudan-Kenya border.

Philips told MNN, "There are a lot of questions about the crash, about whether it was an accident or not an accident ... and following the announcement of his death and following some of the riots, there were also some attacks against Christians that were orchestrated by the government of Sudan.

"It seems very clear that this was a provocation by the government,” he added, “an attempt to incite violence between Muslims and Christians; and perhaps to try to unravel the comprehensive peace agreement.”

Although some feared that Garang’s death would throw into disarray the ongoing efforts to finalise a peace agreement between north and south, the Sudanese government and two main rebel groups – Sudan Liberation Army/Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement – recently said they would attend peace talks scheduled to start on Sept. 15, according to a report published by Reuters last Friday.

According to Phillips, Sudanese Christians are showing resolve to keep the peace, but the situation is tenuous, and if the attacks on Christians continue, the situation could deteriorate.

Phillips hopes that Garang's successor, Salva Kiir Mayardi, who is also a self-professed Christian, will maintain the steady resolve toward peace that Dr Garang demonstrated.

PPF is a US-based organisation founded for the express purpose of collecting and disseminating information about the worldwide incidence of Christian persecution, with a particular focus on Africa. Its focus on Sudan has been in humanitarian relief, discipleship and advocacy work for Sudanese Christians and displaced people.





Eunice Or
Christian Today Correspondent