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.