An Urgent Prayer for Sudan.
Last week, the news about Sudan dominated the global media after the fall of the city of El-Fasher in the Darfur region to the Sudan’s paramilitary force, RSF (Rapid Support Forces).
The RSF, which seized El-Fasher on Sunday, took the last remaining positions in the Darfur region.
Some 2,000 people had been killed by Wednesday, according to the Sudanese Armed Forces, while the Sudan Doctors Network says at least 1,500 people have been killed.
Some 1.2 million people in the city had been under siege for 18 months, forced to survive on animal feed as the RSF built 56km (35-mile) of barriers, preventing the entry of food and medicine and sealing off escape routes.
United Nations chief António Guterres has called for an immediate halt to the violence in Sudan, warning that the humanitarian crisis is rapidly worsening and that “the horrifying crisis in Sudan… is spiralling out of control. El-Fasher and the surrounding areas… have been an epicentre of suffering, hunger, violence and displacement – and since the Rapid Support Forces entered el-Fasher last weekend, the situation is growing worse by the day,” AFP news agency quotes him as saying.
Is there a genocide?
Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.
In March 2024, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, gave harrowing accounts of armed men raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one. Some children have tried to end their own lives as a result.
In the same month, campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was possible that the RSF and allied militias were carrying out a genocide in Darfur against the Massalit people and other non-Arab communities.
A Tragic Situation.
According to Operation World, which focuses on Prayer for Sudan this week:
“Catastrophe is not too strong a word to describe Sudan’s current status.”
Massive protests in 2018 eventually led to the arrest of the President and the end of his rule, 30 years after he seized power in a military coup. A transitional military-civilian government was formed in 2019, but this brief hope for progress was undone by subsequent military coups. Now, civil war rages between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which was formed from government-supported paramilitaries.
The millions of Sudanese who want neither of these forces to rule them have been subjected to atrocities by both sides. Over 10 million Sudanese are displaced, and famine – especially in Darfur – reaches out to claim more lives.
The Regional forces are key players in this war.
The RSF was formed in 2013 and has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia that brutally fought rebels in Darfur, where they were accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the region’s non-Arab population.
Since then, its leader, Gen Dagalo has built a powerful force that has intervened in conflicts in Yemen and Libya. He also controls some of Sudan’s gold mines and allegedly smuggles the metal to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The army accuses the UAE of backing the RSF, and carrying out drone strikes in Sudan.
Pray that the legacy of oppressive, militaristic rule in Sudan might be ended in Jesus’ name. Pray for a government that will oversee a flourishing of the country, most importantly through the rapid spread of the gospel.
Please join the Operation World Prayer for Sudan on November 8-9.
Please Pray:
- That there will be a ceasefire between the two warring factions.
- Pray that the killing of innocent lives will stop.
- Pray that the genocide of non-Arab people will cease.
- Pray that the International community will have the opportunity to intervene.
- Pray for the millions of Sudanese people who are displaced and for many who are facing starvation.
- Pray against the demonic forces controlling rebel forces that are causing untold suffering to innocent people.
- Pray that the doors will open for the Gospel amidst this crisis.
- Pray for all the Christians in Sudan that God will protect them and use them as salt and light in this dark season of this nation.
Thank You for Praying for Sudan.
Sources:
Operation World.
BBC News.
Al Jazeera.
UN News.