You might be aware that there is a full-blown war going on in the north and western parts of Sudan since mid-April. It is between the government sponsored Army and Rapid Forces, an independent well supplied fundamentalist military. Hard to appreciate or realize who is in the lead. Both sides claim control of parts of Khartoum.
Rapid Forces has grown out of Darfur in the western part of the country. There many of the people have been evacuated and taken refuge in neighboring countries especially Chad and Central African Republic.
As soon as the fighting began most foreign nationals fled the country. Embassies closed and since some have been looted. Schools and hospitals have ceased to function, water and electricity in most areas are no longer available and food is scarce. Banks and industries have ceased to operate.
The Church too has suffered. In Khartoum many or most of the religious have fled. The Christian churches have been looted and occupied by the forces of both sides. The parish in Nyala in western Darfur was looted and its two vehicles taken by Rapid Forces. The priest’s guesthouse in El Obeid was bombed and destroyed and gun shots were fired into the cathedral. Both sides are sincere Islamists, who can tell what the future for the churches will be once it is settled.
Here where I am, the Nuba Mountains, is in the southern part of Sudan. We are a liberated area under the governance and protection off the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army so we are not directly affected by the war only we feel it by the increase of costs for items as fuel which comes from the north – nothing is coming but traders are hoarding what they have.
The tides have changed. In the past we here in the south we’re victims of the north. For over thirty years we experienced suffering and killing, bombing and migration. Not to say we are happy to see that the people in the north are now suffering. They still are our sisters and brothers.
So please keep Sudan and its people in your prayers that sometime in the future we will know the Peace that the Lord offers.
Tom Tiscornia
