The Sudanese government demolished another church on last Wednesday, the day after members of the Khartoum State Parliament rejected an order by the Minister of Education for all Christian schools in the capital to open on a Sunday.
The Baptist Church in Omdurman, across the Nile, just west from the capital Khartoum, was on the list of 27 churches designated for destruction last year by the Sudanese government, which claims they were in violation of the designated purposes of the land they were built on.
The Baptist Church in Omdurman, which was demolished last week. PICTURE: Open Doors International.
The EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ján Figeľ, raised this issue in March during a visit to Sudan and was told some of the demolitions had been temporarily stopped.
However, since then at least two more churches have been destroyed and a church worker killed when he tried to intervene.
In May, the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) wrote an open letter to the Sudanese government, detailing the “hard conditions” they have faced in recent years.
In October 2015, an Evangelical church was demolished also in Omdurman at only 72 hours’ notice.
Meanwhile, MPs last Tuesday rejected Minister of Education Farah Mustafa’s order that all Christian schools in Khartoum should open on Sundays.
Mr Mustafa last week issued a statement asking Christian-run schools to adhere to the country’s weekend days of Friday and Saturday, obliging them to treat Sundays as a work day, as Radio Tamuzuj reported.
Churches complained, arguing that Sunday had been a day off for church schools since their founding in Sudan. “The government’s decision to abolish Sundays for Christian schools is discrimination against Christians in Sudan,” an unnamed Sudanese church leader said.
