Tag Archives: Country: Sudan

Boston Globe: A Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

BBC: The UN Security Council has called for an immediate and unconditional end to fighting on Sudan’s southern border.

Christian Science Monitor: Sudan’s government vowed on Thursday to deal swiftly with South Sudan’s occupation of an economically vital oil field near the border but the south said it would not pull out until the threat of attacks by the northern army had gone.

Family Security Matters: The Sudanese regime is on its way to becoming the next Iran, regardless of whether President Omar Bashir remains in power or not. The country is moving towards becoming a full-blown Sharia state, comparable to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban. Towards that end, 500-700,000 Christians have been told to pack up and leave by April 8 or they’ll be treated as foreigners.

Catholic Culture: The government of Sudan, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, has stripped between 500,000 and 700,000 Christians of their citizenship and ordered them to leave for the new nation of South Sudan, according to a report from Ecumenical News International (ENI).

Persecution News: Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslim residents have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their church building near Khartoum. Meanwhile, local authorities are threatening to demolish three other church buildings that already exist.

Reuters: Sudan will go ahead with plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution and strengthen Islamic law, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Wednesday, three months after its former civil war enemy South Sudan became independent.

OneNewsNow.com: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the Obama administration’s release of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, and the Commission is urging the U.S. government to increase action to promote freedom of religion or belief. Burma, Eritrea, China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan are eight “countries of particular concern,” but USCIRF spokesperson Elizabeth Cassidy says her group thinks the list is incomplete . . .

Religion Clause: According to the Sudan Tribune, the Justice Minister said that Article 8 (1) of the Transitional Constitution states clearly that religion and state are be separate, while paragraph (2) provides that all religions are to be treated equally.

Nebraska.tv: A race for freedom of religion, freedom of education, and most of all freedom from slaughter took place in Grand Island Nebraska, Saturday. Sudanese refugees from across the state locked arms with local residents, with a loud and clear message — stop genocide now.

Christian Newswire: Ethnic cleansing, murders, rapes and the growing humanitarian crisis in the Southern Kordofan region of Sudan were described in grisly detail by witnesses testifying at a congressional hearing on Thursday. Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) convened the emergency hearing as chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees African issues and international human rights

Christian Post: Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, 16, has escaped from a gang of Muslims who kidnapped her last year, but it may be a long time before she recovers from the trauma

UN.org: The General Assembly today admitted the Republic of South Sudan as the 193rd member of the United Nations, welcoming the newly independent country to the community of nations.

The Washington Post: The president of the U.N. Security Council says he expects a ministerial meeting on July 13 to recommend that South Sudan be admitted as the 193rd member of the United Nations.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released its 2011 Annual Report and recommended that the Secretary of State name the following nations “countries of particular concern” or CPCs: Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Charisma: “A Christian widow in north Sudan is agonizing over the kidnapping of her daughter eight months ago by suspected Islamic extremists in Khartoum.”

Deutsche Welle: “As referendum results make southern Sudan’s independence from Khartoum nearly certain, northern Sudanese are unsure what is in store for their country. The president has promised to base the constitution on Sharia law.”

AFP: “South Sudan achieved the simple majority needed to secede in its independence referendum, preliminary results collated by AFP showed on Wednesday, even with many counties still to report.”

Baptist Press: “In addition to the voting across southern Sudan, thousands of Sudanese were expected to vote in neighboring countries — including eight locations in Kenya — in a referendum on independence that, if passed, will officially designate southern Sudan as a new nation. Sudan has been ravaged by years of civil war between the heavily Islamic, Arab-dominated north and the predominantly Christian and animist south. The conflict has driven many southern Sudanese to flee to neighboring countries.”

AP: “Arab tribesman attacked a vehicle convoy carrying southern Sudanese traveling from the country’s north to their home region, which is holding an independence referendum this week, an official said Tuesday. Conflicting reports put the death toll between two and 10.”

Doug Bandow writing at The Center for Vision & Values: “There is more than enough bad news to fill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s latest annual report. Worst of all were the conditions in 13 ‘countries of particular concern.’”

Baptist Press: “Joining Southern Sudanese Christians and political leaders weeks prior to an important national referendum on independence, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Phil Roberts participated in prayer vigils and voiced encouragement to believers during a recent visit to Juba, Southern Sudan.”

Associated Press: “Sudan’s president has vowed to more deeply entrench strict Islamic Sharia law in the northern half of his country if the predominantly animist and Christian south votes to secede in a Jan. 9 referendum.”

AP: “Southern Sudan’s parliament may vote to secede from the Khartoum-based north if an independence reference scheduled for January is delayed, a former top Southern Sudan official said Thursday.”

LA Times: “Tall girls fetch more cattle because their daughters will quickly grow and can be married off to fetch even more cattle,” said the chief, shooing a stubborn fly. “A tall girl can command 60 to 100 cattle from a suitor. A short girl may get 20 head, and, sometimes, short girls overstay their welcome in the father’s home and end up fetching only five cattle. By then, a tall girl has already borne five children.”

NY Times: “In January, the southern part of Sudan is to hold a referendum on whether to secede from the north. That is a hazardous prospect, given that the south has much of Sudan’s oil reserves and that Sudan has already fought a lengthy north-south civil war that killed two million people.”

LA Times: “Journalist Lubna Hussein, wearing the same pants in the courtroom, is convicted of public indecency and sentenced to a month in jail when she refuses to pay a $200 fine. She could have been flogged.”

AP: “Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting at the trial Tuesday of a female journalist who faces a flogging for wearing trousers in public.”

Reuters: “The Sudanese government accused some aid groups on Thursday of passing evidence to the International Criminal Court, which has called for Sudan’s president to be arrested over war crimes in Darfur.”

CNSNews: “The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudan President Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur . . . This is the first time the ICC …

CNSNews: “The Sudanese government and its allies – and the people of Darfur – are bracing for Wednesday’s International Criminal Court response to a prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir . . .  Provocative statements from …

Reuters: “A United States aid group has been thrown out of Sudan’s Darfur region after officials found thousands of Arabic-language bibles stacked in its office, state media reported on Saturday . . . “

The Christian Post carries this report that begins: The head of the Anglican church in Sudan said on Tuesday that unity could be restored to the troubled Anglican Communion only when the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson resigns or confesses …