Juba’s busy international airport is also the place to catch your Cessna 2088, a one-prop 10-seater chartered from Mission Air Fellowship. Archbishop Justin Badi Arama came to see us off on Thursday, February 5th. Our flight started with a prayer. Flying northwest for two and a half hours at a maximum altitude of 12,00 feet, we landed at the city-sized United Nations refugee camp of Yida, located just south of the South Sudan-Sudan border. I was accompanying Andudu Adam el-Nail, the bishop of the Diocese of Kadugli, whose territory lies inside the boundaries of Sudan. The other passengers included John Inglis-Jones of the Australian Relay Trust charity, the Rev. Jim Tomkins of Hope Light Mission, and the North Carolinian Anglican priest Jared Wensyel, Executive Director of the charity Sudan Church Partners.
After eating a breakfast of ful (beans), bread, and excellent strong ginger coffee, sheltered by a wood framework draped with a dingy tarpaulin, we boarded a slightly overloaded air-conditioned SUV marked with an emblem of the Diocese of Kadugli in English and Arabic. Breezing through a half-dozen checkpoints, we arrived three hours later at Jao. The border crossing into Sudan consisted of a string across the road. Entering the Nuba Mountains, we arrived after another hour or so at the bishop’s compound equipped with electricity and wi-fi.
While the air cooled and it got dark, we met and chatted with Assistant Bishop Hassan and other clergy. Inside the bishop’s home, we ate chicken, chicken soup, salad, more ful, and slices of mango. Eventually I retired to my hot separate room with my computer and powerful fan, but no working light, or pillow.
In early 2024 the US termed Sudan the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. It has gotten worse since then. Now the UN says Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.
Since 2023, 400,000 dead. 14 million forced to flee their homes because of fighting between two military groups that has ravaged the country. Of those displaced 4 million have fled to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, and Ethiopia; 9 1/2 million are displaced within a country the size of the US east of the Mississippi.
Q. What is The Episcopal Church doing amid the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis known to the United Nations – Sudan?
A. We help feed the starving.
The 2 million Christians in Muslim-majority Sudan — about 4 or 5 % percent of the total population — include about 1 million Episcopalians. So, we are talking about a small minority. Yet the Episcopal Church of Sudan, comprising six dioceses, is making a difference. When the current civil war began in 2024, the Primate and his staff were ousted from their compound in Khartoum. Computers and vehicles were destroyed. Troops bivouacked in the Cathedral. They fled to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, reestablished their office and their bank account, and continued their work.
Since then, the Episcopal Church of Sudan has been transmitting funds, provided mostly by Church of England groups and AFRECS, to individual congregations to finance local food purchases. It’s kind of amazing that this works in Sudan! The Bank of Khartoum has an app called Bankak. This enables the Primate to transmit funds by cellphone to individual church leaders in the devastated cities of Khartoum and Omdurman — funds they use to buy food in the local market. Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo estimates that last year the ECS provided food to 28,000 people.
That’s very impressive.
Q. What is the origin of this terrible war?
A. In 2021 two military elements aborted what appeared to be a promising transition to democracy.
History: After the popular overthrow of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Sudan seemed headed for a democratic transition. In 2021, however, the military – the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – dissolved the power-sharing government. 18 months later those two military elements went to war with each other, a war merciless toward Sudanese civilians.
Enablers: The two armies continue to fight because of weapons coming to the RSF from the United Arab Emirates and to the SAF from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. The UAE is the worst offender; many of the weapons provided to the RSF came originally from the US.
Atrocities: The RSF and allied militias have carried out targeted ethnic violence amounting to genocide in Darfur against “non-Arab” groups. Sexual assault against women and girls has been rampant. The SAF has been guilty of bombings and drone attacks on civilians and has also been accused of mass rape.
Q. So what can American Episcopalians do to end this humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan?
A. Request your elected representatives in Congress to support The Stand Up for Sudan Act.
The Stand Up for Sudan Act was introduced by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) last year, available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/935/text. When enacted, it would halt US arms sales to the UAE until it can demonstrate they are not being used in Sudan.
Executive Director
P.S. I have focused today on Sudan, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, but the Episcopal Church of South Sudan is an equally inspiring story and worthy of support.
Nathaniel Garang Anyeith Jak-Dit, retired Bishop of Bor, died February 24th in Nairobi, Kenya. The Province of the Episcopal Church in South Sudan announced that the transportation of his body from Nairobi to Juba, South Sudan, and visitation homages at All Saints’ Cathedral, were scheduled for March 12th and 13th, respectively.
Trekking with Bishop Garang in 1994 through war-ravaged communities east of the Nile, the American missionary Marc Nikkel wrote, “He would declare to those who see themselves as the last remnant of holocaust, ‘God has not discarded you …He is doing a new and marvelous work beyond our understanding: He is transforming the peoples of Sudan.’” (Why Haven’t You Left?, ed. Grant Lemarquand, 2006.)
AFRECS releases its 2024 Annual Report featuring stories, updates, and reports from its work over the previous year. Read more about AFRECS’ partnerships and the inspiring ministries in Sudan and South Sudan. Click here to read the 2024 Annual Report.
Photo: The Rev. Mary Bol celebrates Christmas with members of her congregation in Seattle.
“Seattle” may evoke for older Americans a yacht harbor and a 1993 movie directed by the late Rob Reiner, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. For a strong contingent of Sudanese Christians resettled in the Diocese of Olympia, however, Seattle has become home. Christmas Day saw Vicar Mary Bol of St. Michael’s South Sudanese Episcopal Church gather 130 worshippers to celebrate this most holy day.
Photo: Kamal Elsadig broadcasting on Radio Dabanga to the Sudanese diaspora around the world.
The Sudanese diaspora, scattered across Africa and the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Australia, depends on the radio for news of fighting, food scarcity, disease in refugee camps, or atrocities in their homeland. Kamal Elsadig, the editor of Radio Dabanga in Amsterdam, arrived from El-Fasher in 2008 and states the mission of Radio Dabanga is “to be a public service media house for all Sudanese that enables people in all states and regions to participate in the exchange of knowledge, news, and information.”
Photo: Students at the Episcopal University in Juba, South Sudan, cultivate theology, law, and vegetables.
Graham Buttanshaw, a former missionary teacher in Uganda, used the month of November to go back to school in South Sudan. His tour of Episcopal theological schools included the former Bishop Gwynne College, now the theology department of the Episcopal University of South Sudan in Juba which includes the well-equipped library and the equally necessary vegetable gardens, allowing students to work both their hands and their minds.
Photo: The University Library has well-stocked shelves, plus a few laptops.
Graham promises good communication with friends who wish to explore investing in leadership training and entering into a partnership with Bishop Allison Theological College (BATC). CONTACT: g.buttanshaw@gmail.com
For three decades, the Diocese of Virginia has sustained friendships with the dioceses of Ezo, Renk, and Ayod in South Sudan. Continuing a relationship with the Diocese of Ezo, Rector Weston Matthews together with Jack Mathias and Leslie Siegmund of St. Francis, Great Falls, plan to meet in February in the Diocese of Salisbury, England with Bishop Isaac and Mama Nora of the Diocese of Ezo. Through the Rev. Joy Warburton, the Mothers’ Union Branch of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, contributes resources for internally displaced persons in Ezo. St. Mary’s, Arlington lay leaders Russell Randle and Diane and Ed Wright have sent funds to Renk Diocese to support refugees arriving from Sudan and train new evangelists. After the November visit of Bishop Thomas Tut Gany, Anne and Jon Spear of St. Thomas, McLean, have provided resources for a school in Diocese of Ayod, exploring a new relationship. St. Paul’s, Alexandria, has supported a primary school in Renk for 30 years with “Pennies from Heaven,” contributed by their pre-school students. Other Virginia parishes support Hope and Resurrection Secondary School near Rumbek.
Photo: Principal Michael Kiju Paul (in coat and tie) conducts a tour of newly built, still unfurnished, women’s dormitory.
The Kajo-Keji Christian College was established by the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in 1993 and offers programs in theology, education, business, and information communication technology.
Photo: ERR volunteers distributing food to those in dire need of assistance.
With the war in Sudan raging now for two and a half years, the suffering of the local population continues to increase. The United Nations estimates that 12 million people have been displaced, 25 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and over 400,000 people have been killed. This is the worst humanitarian disaster in the world today. The intensity of the fighting and violence, and the bureaucratic restrictions imposed by both sides, have severely limited international humanitarian assistance.
Out of this death and dust, the Sudanese themselves have stepped up. The Sudanese have a long-standing tradition of communities coming together as volunteers to help people in need. They have now taken that model to another level. Immediately after the fighting began in April 2023, local community groups set up communal kitchens to provide food to people displaced from their homes, and basic emergency first aid to people who were injured. These are staffed entirely by volunteers and use whatever local resources they have. They called themselves “Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs)”.
The ERRs have quickly spread across the country, in both Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) controlled areas and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled areas. They have expanded their services – based on the need and the resources they have – to include psychosocial support (especially to rape victims), childcare centers, shelter, emergency evacuations. and even some basic infrastructure repair. These volunteers are often targeted by the military groups, their money (what little they have) sometimes stolen, and put in prison or even killed. Yet they continue to work and have organized themselves nationwide. They are often the only source of humanitarian assistance to the people in need. These ERRs are still very limited and not nearly enough to meet all the needs, but being community-led, they meet the people where they are, in a very personal manner. There are now hundreds – maybe thousands – of ERRs throughout the country, with the bigger towns/cities having dozens of them, so they really have a broad reach to the neediest people.
