Sharia (Islamic law) is the foundation of Sudan’s legal system, and leaving Islam is punishable by death; Christians who talk about their faith can be accused of an “act that encourages apostasy”. Christianity is seen as Western, making it a political target. Several Christians have been imprisoned in recent years, charged with “spying”. Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes including “genocide”, is believed to want to “rid” Sudan of Christianity. In 2016 the government announced plans to destroy 27 churches, claiming they were in violation of the designated purposes of the land they were built on.
Clampdown on Sudan’s churches
A building used as a church by Sudanese Christians is being torn down by police after worshippers fell into a dispute with a group that claims to own the building. The evangelical church community in Bahri, a suburb of Khartoum, had formed a human chain to prevent the building from […]
Sudanese ‘apostasy’ Mariam now in the US
The Sudanese death-row mother, Mariam Ibrahim, who’s been in global headlines for renouncing Islam, arrived in New Hampshire last week. She was accompanied by her two children and husband Daniel Wani, a dual US and South Sudanese citizen. The family was initially flown to Italy, where they met the Pope, […]
Mariam’s permission to leave Sudan still unclear
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the current status of Sudan’s ‘death-row mother’ Mariam Ibrahim’s lack of freedom to leave Khartoum for a new life with her husband and children at his American home. On July 17, Reuters reported that the lawsuit brought by Ibrahim’s Sudanese Muslim father was dropped. The […]
Mariam’s case highlights plight of Sudan’s Christians
The globally known apostasy case of the death-row mother Mariam Ibrahim, forced to give birth with her legs shackled, is only one of many examples of the religious discrimination that Sudanese Christians battle on a regular basis. The poverty-stricken Muslim country lost the majority of its Christian population to South […]
Sudanese church destroyed with 24 hours’ notice
Government officials have destroyed the Sudanese Church of Christ in North Khartoum. With only a 24-hour notice 70 government officials turned up on July 1 to demolish the church, which hosted a congregation of more than 600 people. They said it was because the government wants to use the land […]
Continued crisis for Sudanese death-row mother
Click below for CNN’s exclusive interview with Mariam Ibrahim, the Christian mother who was given a death sentence for apostasy. Ibrahim who is still in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, said, “there’s a new problem every day” including a potential long-term disability of her daughter which doctors fear was caused by the circumstances of Mariam being shackled […]
Sudan’s death row mother freed again
Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother imprisoned for six months and released from death-row charges for apostasy, was released for the second time on Thursday night. She had been re-arrested less than 24hrs after being freed by the court, after being driven to the airport in a US Embassy car with […]
Sudan government’s official links with janjaweed
Janjaweed, militias who have terrorised Darfur for years, have been made an official force by the Sudan government, according to a report by the Enough Project, a U.S based genocide-prevention group. “The Sudanese government has abandoned the fig leaf that the janjaweed don’t operate under their command and control,” said the Enough […]
Sudanese Christian shackled during child birth
Mariam Ibrahim’s husband Daniel Wani, has said that his wife’s legs were shackled while she gave birth to their daughter, Maya, in prison on May 27. Ibrahim is the Sudanese mother sentenced to death for apostasy. Wani said he was delighted at seeing his baby daughter but he is angry […]
Sudanese woman gives birth on death row
Mariam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, gave birth to a baby girl at a prison near Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. She is allowed to nurse her new-born baby for two years before the death sentence is fulfilled and her 20-month-old son has been in prison with her since she was arrested. Mariam, […]