Author: AmerFriendSudan

Photo: Gathered in Yambio on April 9 were (from left to right) the retired Primate of South Sudan Daniel Deng Bul (tallest), Yambio’s Archbishop Samuel Peni, Archbishop and Primate Justin Badi Arama (in white) and Archbishop Paul Yugusuk of Central Equatoria Internal Province (in white); women leaders including Mama Joyce Badi and Mama Aida Peni; Bishop Wilson Kamani of Ibba (leaning forward) with Abraham Nhial of Aweil Diocese; and the Governor of Western Equatoria State.

by Samuel Enosa Peni, Archbishop of Yambio Internal Province, South Sudan

Our celebrations took place April 9 to 11, marking exactly 100 years of the All Saints Cathedral building in Yambio.  Despite political uncertainty in the country, over 10,000 people attended, including Internal  Archbishops and bishops from South Sudan, as well as guests from Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. We had invited about 20,000 people, but some friends from the region, US, UK, and  other invited visitors declined, due to the uncertainty.

This three-day event saw believers from all over South Sudan coming to celebrate the goodness of the Lord.  A verse from Ephesians 2:8, “By grace we have come this far,”  guided our celebrations. We reflected on the grace of God in the 100 years All Saints Cathedral has been in  existence. We wait expectantly to see where God takes us in the next 100 years , and the impact All Saints Cathedral will have in the lives of the people of Yambio and Western Equatoria State at large.

We were privileged to have with us the Primate of South Sudan the Most Reverend Dr. Justin Badi Arama, as well as the former Primate of Sudan and South Sudan, Daniel Deng Bul.

”To God be the glory!”

Rev’d Ian Wallace & the Rev’d Pauline Walker invite friends to attend the Annual General Meeting for The Church Association for Sudan & South Sudan (CASSS).  This group shares news among the Diocese of Salisbury, the Diocese of Leeds, and voluntary societies in the United Kingdom who are committed to supporting our brothers and sisters in Christ in both Sudans.  Saturday 14th June 2025 at St Andrew’s Church, Short Street, Waterloo, London SE1 from 12 noon. Details at www.casss.org.uk

By Thomas H. Staal, Counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development (retired), Board member of AFRECS

Facts & Figures (revised March 2025):

• Population of Sudan:  about 50 million
• In urgent need of food:  25 million
• More people suffering famine or on brink of famine than all other disasters combined
• Displaced from their homes: 10+ million (8.3 Internally Displaced Persons, 2.3 Refugees – 10/2024)
• Deaths so far:  official – 26,262; probably around 600,000 (London School of Hygiene – 10/2024)
• Famine declaration (Aug. 2024):  755,000 in Zam Zam IDP camp/Darfur, probably more

Current Status:

• Fighting started in Khartoum, quickly spread to Darfur and country-wide
• RSF in the West, South; SAF in the East and North and recently the center
• Khartoum now controlled by SAF, but is badly damaged
• SAF (and what’s left of government) based in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea
• No U.S. diplomatic presence in country

Political

• 1989-2019:  Military Dictator Omar al-Bashir (Islamic)
• 2003:  Bashir establishes paramilitary force – “Janjaweed” – to pacify Darfur
• 2004-05:  famine conditions in Darfur
• 2019:   Civilian demonstrations lead to overthrow of Bashir and establishment of joint military/civilian government
• 2021:  Military coup pushes out the civilians; US, African Union,  European Union do not recognize new government
• 2023:  Two military leaders start fighting
• 2025: RSF declares an independent state in areas under their control; no country recognizes it

The Players: 

• Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Burhan
• Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (Janjaweed’s successor), led by Gen. Mohamed (“Hemedti”) Hamdan Dagalo
• Sudan Peoples Liberation Front -North, SLM, others
• Various local/ethnic militias

Who’s supporting whom?

• SAF: Egypt, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Islamist groups
• RSF: United Arab Emirates, Mali, Niger

Complications:

• Active fighting is ongoing, neither side wants to stop
• Both sides actively inhibiting, blocking humanitarian aid
• Very limited ability for UN or NGOs to operate
• Reliable evidence of significant human rights abuses ongoing
• It’s a very big country with poor infrastructure

By Richard J. Jones

Under the banner, “SUDAN: DON’T TURN AWAY”, the public is invited on the day before Mothers’ Day to view an unsettling work, “Red-Handed”, on Saturday, May 10, 11 a.m .–  4 p.m., at Historic Christ Church, 118 N. Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia. Information: 703-823-3186.

The goal of the installation – untimely as it may seem for the eve of Mothers’ Day — is to make new friends for the church in the Sudans.

Not all artists invite the public to walk all over their work. Rosemary Feit Covey, a wood engraver in Alexandria, Virginia,  is inviting viewers on May 10 to walk upon, and ponder, a nonspecific image of mass death. She calls it “Red-Handed”. 

Americans, including Sudanese Americans, will be present to point up connections between this abstract paint-on-vinyl work and the specific sufferings of over 13,000,000 Sudanese currently rendered homeless by the two-year civil war  — the largest refugee and homeless population in the world known to the United Nations today. 

A second-floor auditorium overlooking a Colonial churchyard will offer a zone for both conversation and silent meditation.  Water and karkade, the Sudanese tea of hospitality, will be served. Photographs of some of the trauma-healing members of the Mothers’ Union of the Episcopal Church in South Sudan and Sudan will be displayed. A banner will shout: “SUDAN: DON’T TURN AWAY.”

Imprecise news out of the State Department indicates that the regional bureaus will likely gain added power and scope.  Rumors that the Bureau of African Affairs will be closed are false. USAID will probably be folded into the State Department, but not wholesale as the U.S. Information Agency was in 1999.  Instead, the aid function will be attached to the regional bureaus.  It is highly possible  that  embassies in Africa will be closed, including  in South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Central African Republic, and Lesotho.

In late March the SAF ousted the RSF from the Khartoum-Omdurman area in central Sudan. On April 13 the Rapid Support Forces seized the Zamzam IDP camp near El Fasher in Darfur, after a four-day assault, killing an estimated 400 civilians and scattering people toward El Fasher and nearby Tawila.  On April 16 RSF leader Gen. Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) announced the creation of a parallel Sudanese government, a “government of peace and unity” to include a wide range of ethnic groups reflecting “the true face of Sudan.” The RSF began air attacks on Port Sudan May 6. The State Department denounced the slaughter at Zamzam, but otherwise the Administration has indicated little interest in the Sudan catastrophe. Our British friends report that, of the eight bishops in Sudan, three are active in their dioceses and three others are displaced but active in neighboring dioceses. Church women come together on Tuesdays to pray in all the dioceses.

In the April 20 New York Times Declan Walsh wrote:

“The children died one after the other.  Twelve acutely malnourished infants living in one corner of Sudan’s war-ravaged capital, Khartoum. Abdo, an 18-month-old boy, had been rushed to a clinic by his mother as he was dying. His ribs protruded from his withered body. The next day, a doctor laid him out on a blanket with a teddy bear motif, his eyes closed. Like the other 11 children, Abdo starved to death in the weeks after President Trump froze all U.S. foreign assistance, said local aid workers and a doctor. American-funded soup kitchens in Sudan, including the one near Abdo’s house, had been the only lifelines for tens of thousands of people besieged by fighting.”

AFRECS has transmitted some funds to Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo in Port Sudan. We suggested he seek to put Episcopalian churches in Khartoum/Omdurman in contact with the emergency soup kitchens .

The cancellation of US visas for South Sudan has not been reversed.  The South Sudan Embassy on April 15 advised its citizens:

• South Sudanese nationals residing in the United States can continue to stay legally under the terms of their current immigration status.
• However, if you depart the United States, you cannot re-enter on a revoked visa.
• Citizens under Temporary Protection Status will not have a pathway to regularize their status.

AFRECS celebrates 20 years of friendship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan at a reception May 9, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at 1801 F St., NW, Washington, DC, followed by an art installation May 10, 11 a.m. –  4 p.m. entitled “Red-Handed” at 118 N. Washington  St., Alexandria VA.  For details, please contact afrecs@afrecs.org.

The Sudan Conflict Monitor, produced by the Sudan Transparency & Policy Tracker, gave us March 7 the most comprehensive recent analysis of developments in war-ravaged Sudan. See its brief analysis of the shut-down of almost all assistance to the Emergency Response Rooms offering one meal a day to the starving in decimated cities.

With official humanitarian aid SHUT DOWN, you are urged to contribute directly to faith-based organizations working in Sudan, including AFRECS.  Please go to www.afrecs.org/donate or send a check to AFRECS, PO Box 3327, Alexandria VA 22302.

An excerpt from their report is below:

On January 24, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that suspended all ongoing USAID programs pending a 90-day review. Overnight, multiple agencies and programs were issued stop work orders. Since then, an estimated 90% of contracts have been canceled. … This has a serious economic impact for Sudan.

Two-thirds of the funding for the Emergency Response Rooms was provided by the US.  As a result, 80% soup kitchens run by the Emergency Response Rooms have been shut down, affecting an estimated two million people. For most of the beneficiaries, the food provided at the soup kitchens was “the only meal they get,” according to Hajooj Kuka, a spokesman for the Emergency Response Rooms. Volunteers at the emergency rooms are reporting that hungry people they used to serve are knocking on their doors in desperation. In the words of one volunteer, “we expect to see a lot of people starving” very soon. In Dilling, South Kordofan, local organizations report that malnutrition-related deaths have occurred since the local community kitchens were forced to shut down.

The cut of funding to the emergency rooms is particularly gut-wrenching because these very local hardworking volunteers are delivering aid at very low cost, and USAID had just begun a process to engage with them more directly, increasing efficiency. These efforts to provide more locally accountable and efficient aid now seem doomed.

Read the full report here.

Please note this abridged story from the New Humanitarian Feb. 27, 2025. AFRECS is moving emergency funds to the Episcopal Church of Sudan to help its scattered churches purchase food. Please contribute to AFRECS at www.afrecs.org/donate, send a check to PO Box 3327, Alexandria VA 22302, or give to the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition.

The Trump Administration issued stop-work orders on 20 January. While exemptions have been issued for some forms of emergency aid, they have been difficult to interpret and cumbersome to apply for – particularly amid the attempt to shut down USAID, which provided 44% of the $1.8 billion of humanitarian funding to Sudan last year.

Aid officials and more than a dozen volunteers from emergency response rooms interviewed for this story told The New Humanitarian that the groups have been severely impacted, and that the freeze has escalated the possibility of famine spreading beyond the areas it has already settled.

Hundreds of communal kitchens have gone out of service due to a lack of food supplies.

The emergency response room in the East Nile district of Khartoum doesn’t have enough funds to purchase gasoline to operate a water pump, and has closed almost all of its 300 kitchens. Some 111 kitchens have been shut in Jabal Awliya, which is located south of Khartoum. The number of communal kitchens operating in East Darfur state has dropped from 48 to just two, and they are offering only one meal a day.

Volunteers are trying to fundraise to plug the gaps. Some are running online crowdfunding campaigns on Facebook, while others hope that a dedicated website –the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition – can bring in more public support.

Volunteers said they are also speaking with new institutional donors, including Gulf states and regional organisations, as well as asking their established international NGO partners for more support. Nothing yet.

The emergency response rooms are having to rethink the model of providing emergency aid.

One group is discussing setting up sustainable, agricultural income-generating projects to reduce its reliance on donor-dependent initiatives like the community kitchens.

We received a recent Situation Update from Wilson Center. Please review here.

The American people strive to be kind and charitable.  We want to see ourselves as people willing to help a neighbor.  The American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans has engaged with Episcopalians across the United States to partner with the church in the Sudans over more than 20 years.  This has been a friendship that has grown in amazing ways by linking Sudanese and South Sudanese in the Diaspora with American friends to do good work with and for the Episcopal Church in Sudan and South Sudan.

Now we see with growing concern that one of the main institutions offering need humanitarian aid is in grave danger – The United States Agency for International Development. All Episcopalians and people of good will should voice their concern.

Since the end of World War II, our Government has established mechanisms to invest in the rest of the world to rebuild shattered economies, to foster democratic governments, to fight disease and supply food and humanitarian assistance to famine stricken populations as well as those hit by natural disasters.   USAID is one of those mechanisms, established by Congress, funded by our tax dollars.  And yes, it is not only altruistic to help suffering populations around the world but it helps to make the world a more stable place.  A more stable world leads to peace for us too.

Some of the most vulnerable people in the world are suffering and dying during the current administration’s freeze of the miniscule 1% of the U.S. government’s budget allocated to foreign aid. As citizens of the richest country in the world, we have a moral obligation to help these people. Not doing so thwarts the laws passed by Congress, in allocating these funds, and damages Americans’ image around the world as a charitable and caring people.

“The programs that have frozen or folded over the past six days supported frontline care for infectious disease, providing treatments and preventive measures that help avert millions of deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases. They also presented a compassionate, generous image of the United States in countries where China has increasingly competed for influence,” The New York Times reported on Feb. 1.

In addition to the shutdown of clinics for malnourished Sudanese children, “emergency medical care for displaced Palestinians and Yemenis fleeing war, heat and electricity for Ukrainian refugees, and mpox surveillance in Africa,” the nonpartisan, nonprofit news site, ProPublica.org, reported on Jan. 31.

I ask you now to think expansively about who your neighbors are.   Love one another as I have loved you is our command.

Contact your Congressional representatives and urge that all U.S. humanitarian aid appropriated by Congress be immediately restored. To contact the members of Congress who represent you, go to: congress.gov/members/find-your-member.