Gabriel Ismail Abudigin, senior among the Episcopal bishops of Sudan (L), is in danger of inheriting the title given nine months ago to his son, Daramili Abudigin (R), as “Last Pastor left Standing” in El-Fasher.
Food is scarce in El-Obeid, a city of 500,000 people in the dusty central Sudan region of Kordofan, but bank transfers of donated US dollars, including those from AFRECS, allowed the Rt. Rev. Ismail Gabriel Abudigin, the senior bishop in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, to deliver modest amounts of foodstuffs and cash in June to needy households through the parishioners of his one continuing congregation. (Our friend John Poole of Bradford, England, pronounces the name ah-boo-DI-jn, putting the stress on the next-to-last syllable, like the English word “pigeon”.)
Bags of much needed food are readied by parishioners for distribution to inhabitants of the besieged city of El-Obeid.
Violent disorder was already being reported in December 2025, when the Roman Catholic bishop of El-Obeid, Yunan Tombe, returning home from a meeting in Juba, encountered—in separate incidents—the Sudan Armed Forces and, immediately afterward, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. “Guns (were) given to the lads and (they were) instructed to carry out their usual business, which clearly was execution,” the bishop said in a message. Despite suffering heavy blows on his neck, face, and sides of the head, he added, “Thanks to the prayers of the church, I was saved. A leader of the paramilitary emerged from his office and ordered the gunmen to free the church people.”
AFRECS believes that the wife and children of the bishop’s son, Daramali Abudigin, remain in El-Obeid, alongside Bishop Abudigin and other members of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. Fr. Daramali, an Episcopal priest known as “the last pastor left standing in El-Fasher” in 2025, is believed to remain 300 miles to the west in Darfur, assisting homeless residents of El-Fasher who fled that massacre.
AFRECS is grateful for the report from the Port Sudan office of the Episcopal Church of Sudan that our transfer ofUS $65,000 was received in December 2025 and January 2026 has been distributed among 5 of the 6 dioceses in the province, with most funds going to Khartoum and Wad Medeni, cities with the largest populations. Approximately 10% was distributed in El-Obeid, where since 2023 the church has shared relief supplies with Muslim as well as Christian inhabitants.
Read more: The Times of London article “They fled a massacre. Now the city that gave them refuge may be next.” July 1, 2026