Sudan’s Christians Caught In Crossfire As Atrocities Mount In El Fasher

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

KHARTOUM/EL FASHER (Worthy News) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) say they have detained several of their own fighters following global outrage over this month’s alleged massacres in the besieged city of El Fasher, but church monitors and human-rights advocates warn that civilians — including Christians — remain in grave danger.

The RSF released images showing commander Abu Lulu under arrest after footage circulated of fighters executing men in civilian clothing.

Yet rights groups called the arrest a “public-relations stunt.” Sudanese researcher Mohamed Suliman told reporters the detention “appears to be a PR stunt to deflect global anger and shift attention away from the militia’s responsibility for this massacre.”

United Nations human-rights spokesperson Seif Magango confirmed that “hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters could have been killed while trying to leave El Fasher” in recent days.

He said witnesses reported that RSF personnel “selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons – around 100 families – to leave the location amid shooting and intimidation of older residents.”

THOUSANDS STILL MISSING

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that tens of thousands remain missing after only a few thousand people reached the Tawila displacement camp west of the city.

MSF said reports from those who fled indicate “mass killings, indiscriminate violence and ethnic targeting inside the city and on the roads to escape it.”

Paediatrician Giulia Chiopris with MSF said, “All the children under five we screened were malnourished … our surgical teams are working non-stop.”

Christians are in the crossfire with Christian advocacy group Open Doors saying that more than 100 church buildings have been damaged or destroyed across Sudan since the civil war escalated in 2023, adding that “Christians are experiencing exceptional hardship … local communities discriminate against them and won’t give them support.”

Another Christian advocacy organization, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said it is “deeply concerned by reports of atrocities in El Fasher and across Darfur,” noting that Christians are among civilians caught in the fighting.

CHRISTIANS, CHURCHES IMPACTED

Although the violence is allegedly explicitly religious, Christian charities say believers face additional hardship because of their minority status. Global Christian Relief noted that many converts from Islam “suffer both as minorities and as targets of the war.”

Women ’s rights activist Hala al-Karib, with the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, said the RSF’s focus on arresting one man was “a painful joke” intended to distract from the scale of violence inflicted by its forces in El Fasher and elsewhere.

She said, “There is an absence of accountability and indifference to our humanity … hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have perished … and young girls and women have been ruthlessly raped during the past three years.”

Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the RSF and the national army. The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced over 10 million people – the world’s largest displacement crisis today.

Christian advocacy organizations, including Open Doors and CSW, have appealed for international pressure on Sudan’s warring parties to allow humanitarian access and protect vulnerable minorities.

They asked believers worldwide to pray for peace and safety for those trapped in Darfur and other conflict zones, as churches struggle to continue relief and pastoral work amid ongoing attacks.

Latest Worthy News