Worthy Christian News > Christian Persecution > Christian Persecution - Africa > Sudan > Two churches burned down by arsonists despite hopes for Christian freedom

Two churches burned down by arsonists despite hopes for Christian freedom

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Two churches in Sudan have been burned down by arsonists in the last month, Sudanese Radio Dabanga reported. This is despite Christian hopes for religious freedom following the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. Radio Dabanga was notified of the attacks by Dimas Marajan, a local lawyer and human rights activist.

Marajan informed the radio station that the first attack occurred on February 29 in Khartoum’s twin city, Omdurman, on a building belonging to the Sudanese Church of Christ. The second assault was on the Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Bout Village in the Blue Nile State. Both attacks took place just weeks after three other churches were burned down in south-east Sudan.

International Christian Concern has reported that, since the overthrow of al-Bashir, Sudan has abolished the dictator’s committees for overseeing churches and has returned management of church matters to church leaders. It has also placed a number of Christians in high-level positions and has said it will give back church properties.

However, despite these welcomed changes, there are people in the country who continue to violently oppose Christians: freedom for believers may yet be some time coming.