Victory in Sudan

Your prayers are effective – peace is finally coming to Sudan! The longest war in the largest country of Africa appears to be over. Few however would have thought that the last battle in Sudan’s war would be fought in Afghanistan and Iraq by US and coalition forces. “How’s that?” you ask. Read on.

The National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Sudan came to power by a military coup in 1989. Lieutenant General Omar Al-Bashir, a radical Islamacist, hosted and sponsored a wide variety of terrorist groups, including Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda. The NIF was one of the very few governments that recognized the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The NIF also maintained close and friendly relations with Saddam Hussain’s regime in Iraq.

When America reacted to the terrorist assaults on 9/11 by overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the NIF government in Sudan began serious talks with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) about a cease-fire. Gradually the fragile cease-fire began to solidify into more serious peace talks as the US liberated Iraq.

During 2004 it was widely believed in Africa that should President Bush lose the November US presidential election, the government of Sudan would go back to war and continue bombing the South. It was generally agreed, by both Muslims and Christians, that should President Bush win the US elections, then the government of Sudan would have no choice but to finalize the peace talks.

Missionaries report that groups of Sudanese Christians regularly held evening fireside prayer meetings in the bush praying for a Bush victory in November.

Now, with a second Bush term in the US, the government of Sudan dare not risk a new campaign of bombing schools, hospitals and churches in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains lest they be overthrown like their friends in Afghanistan and Iraq. This has convinced Al-Bashir’s government that for political survival they must make peace with Christians in the Black South.

August this year marks a half-century since the first shots were fired in this colossal conflict. Now the guns are silent. It has been over eighteen months since Christians in Southern Sudan endured aerial bombardments, artillery barrages or scorched earth campaigns. Refugees are returning, churches are being rebuilt, homes are being constructed, crops are being planted and herds are once more grazing – where for decades Arab forces have waged a scorched earth campaign seeking to destroy everything necessary to sustain life.

Steve Evers represented ITMI in the largest inter-mission team Frontline has ever fielded in Sudan. Twelve missionaries and volunteers have all safely returned. Together they delivered thousands of Christian school textbooks and Bibles, conducted numerous discipleship training courses and assisted pastors and teachers in establishing primary schools. This in addition to helping re-establish a Bible college for training pastors in Southern Sudan.

While peace may be returning to Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, a separate conflict is raging in the Darfur province of Western Sudan. This is a Muslim on Muslim conflict where Arab Muslim militias are attacking Black Muslim tribesmen. Christians are not involved in that conflict or province as far as we know.

It is interesting that the same media and governments which failed to pay much attention to the almost five decades of relentless government persecution of Black Christians in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, now show such intense interest in the current, much smaller scale, lower intensity conflict in Darfur.

Now that peace is returning to Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, we must not diminish our efforts in evangelism, leadership training and literature distribution. We need to continue training pastors, teachers and nurses and help equip them with what they need to rebuild their country after decades of war and persecution.

Many dedicated Christians have invested sacrificially in Sudan, establishing schools, hospitals, colleges, helping to rebuild bombed-out churches, delivering food to starving villagers whose crops have been burned and whose livestock had been looted by government forces. Extraordinary efforts were undertaken to publicize the perilous plight of the persecuted Christians in Sudan, and to mobilize international pressure against the persecutors. On several occasions mission teams came under artillery fire and aerial bombardment sometimes during a church service.

By God’s grace, all of the prayer, publicity, pressures and partnership began to effectively turn the tide. In addition, on the secular side, the US war on terrorism also had the unexpected side effect of hastening a cease-fire and sparking peace negotiations in Sudan. In this sense Sudanese Christians are praising the Lord for the positive and beneficial fruit of US foreign policy. Now that’s an interesting twist. You won’t see or hear that on CNN.

Compiled from field reports by Peter Hammond, Tim Keller & Steve Evers. Edited by Bill Bathman