AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for the Republic of Sudan - Africa

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Home > Nov 09: Sudan

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Nov 09: Sudan

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Sudan

Republic of Sudan

Africa

See Prayer Information

Geography

Area: 2,503,890 sq km
Africa’s largest country. Desert in the north, merging into grasslands and mountains in the centre and tropical bush in the south. Straddling the Nile Rivers. Nuba Mountains in the centre.
Population: 43,192,438    Annual Growth: 2.22%
Capital: Khartoum
Urbanites: 45.2%
HDI Rank: 150 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 246 (56% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Arabic and English    Languages: 134 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Muslim

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	11,277,546	26.11	4.8
Evangelicals	6,336,018	14.7	6.4
Muslim	26,511,518	61.38

Challenges for Prayer

Sudan’s leaders, as much as they are able, have aggressively imposed Islamic shari’a on the rest of the country and boasted of their role as leaders of the Islamic Revolution in Africa. In fact, an Arab minority used religion as a tool to consolidate power and to justify killing, stealing and destroying in the south, despite its legal autonomy. There was once a strong Christian presence in northern Sudan, and for nearly a millennium the majority of the population were Christian. Muslims invaded and defeated the Christians at the end of the 13th Century and gradually Islamized the area by the 15th Century. Pray that plans to uproot, wipe out or convert Christian populations in Sudan may fail spectacularly.
Persecution of the Church, persisting over most of the last 60 years, has been most intense since 1985. Deliberate attempts to eliminate a viable Christian presence are extreme and include bombing of Sunday church services, destruction of churches, hospitals, schools, mission bases and Christian villages, massacres and mutilation, and murder of pastors and leaders. Persecution is especially severe in the Nuba Mountains. Whole areas have been laid waste and lands seized and given to Arabized northerners. Pray that Christians may bear good witness to their persecutors in these sufferings and become spiritually strong as a result. Pray also that the sufferings of Christians might become widely known and that peace, justice and religious freedom may be firmly established.
     For an additional 11 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Sudan.