Khartoum: Sudan Shuts 500-Member Church
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
KHARTOUM (Worthy News)– Security agents in Sudan locked a congregation out of its church building in August and may even try to sell it, according to Morning Star News.
In a wave of church closures and confiscations, Sudan’s Security Services closed the Sudan Pentecostal Church in Khartoum as well as the Khartoum Christian Center it houses. And though the government claimed that the SPC closure was temporary, it told the congregation to look for another place to worship in.
Following the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, Sudan bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that the buildings really belonged to South Sudanese citizens.
Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been listed as a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999; last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that Sudan remain on the State Department’s list.