On December 30, 2024, members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organization fighting against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), carried out an attack against a church building of the Sudanese Church of Christ. In the attack, at least 14 people have been injured seriously. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a UK-based human rights foundation, reported and condemned the attack.

The assailants perpetrated the church grounds, forcing the 177 believers to leave while vandalizing and looting the church itself. According to the foundation, the Christian community did not return to the church since the attack. Reportedly RSF soldiers also threatened to kill all the Christians in the area under their control.

“We are particularly alarmed by the threat issued to all Christians in the area, who are a vulnerable minority community that has suffered abuses both historically and during this conflict,”

said CSW’s Founder President, Mervyn Thomas. Since the start of the conflict between the RSF and SAF in April 2023, both sides targeted the Christian minority and attacked places of worship. In RSF-controlled areas, Christians are subjected to human rights violations and are pressured to leave their faith and convert to Islam.

However, SAF also carried out attacks against places of worship. On December 20, 2024, eleven people, including children and women, were killed by an SAF airstrike on the Al Ezba Baptist Church. Earlier that month, on December 4, seven people lost their lives during an SAF airstrike on Sheikh Elsidiq Mosque in Shambat.

Source: ACI Africa

Photo: UN Photo/JC McIlwaine