Fighting for Survival in Sudan

Volume 1 1995

“The Muslims cannot defeat us. We stand firm as Christians, and we will die for our faith. Our struggle is not against Islam or against Muslims, but is against a regime that wants to destroy our African heritage and faith. It is discouraging to see that the Islamic dictatorship in Khartoum receives material and moral support from other Islamic countries, while we receive no support from the Christian world. But we will continue our struggle for freedom even if we are forsaken by Christendom. We will die for our faith and we will die as Christians.”

These are the words of Commander Thomas Cirillo of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) as he led the siege of Kapoeta. Cdr Cirillo had served as an officer in the artillery corps of the Muslim army of Sudan until June 1993. After he was converted, he convinced his troops to join him in a mutiny. They changed sides and joined the Christian forces - the SPLA.

The Muslim government Popular Defence Force (PDF), had captured Kapoeta in May 1992. Immediately the new commissioner, Abdalla Kapello, began to enforce the Islamisation and Arabisation policies of the government of Sudan. A Koranic school was established. Christians who defied his orders by continuing to worship in churches were arrested and beaten.

The head Sunday School teacher, Pio Napomba, was arrested and taken to a "ghost house" where he was tortured. At one point his captors tied a sack filled with red pepper around his head. This practice often leads to an agonizing death by asphyxiation. Pio, however, survived and was later released. Meanwhile his son, Stephen, and assistant, Philip, were arrested for conducting Bible studies. When the Muslims offered them freedom in return for admitting their guilt and promising not to proclaim the Gospel - they refused. Stephen and Philip were then also subjected to the red pepper torture. Later Stephen and Philip escaped to the SPLA lines outside Kapoeta.

By this time all the civilians had been evicted and 2 000 Muslim soldiers had turned Kapoeta into their barracks. Cdr Cirillo tightened the seige around Kapoeta and began to bombard the Muslim forces. Despite repeated air attacks by government Antonov bombers, the SPLA forces still had the government troops trapped in their underground bunkers according to the last report. A relief column was allowed into Kapoeta only to swell the numbers of those trapped.

Cdr Cirillo reported that the Muslim mujahadeen and militia customarily chant before battle: We will force you to become Muslims whether you want to or not. He claimed that the government forces kill all SPLA soldiers who fall into their hands, while the SPLA routinely take prisoners and treat them according to the Geneva Convention. A local minister confirmed that the Commander had about 200 Muslim prisoners of war and that he was able to regularly visit and minister to them. The pastor was satisfied that they had been treated humanely.

During the seige, the church building in Kapoeta was occupied, fortified, mined and desecrated by Mujahadeen volunteers and members of the PDF. A Muslim soldier was shot by the SPLA as he attempted to cut down the cross on the roof of the church. PDF troops were driven out of the church compound during a fierce battle on November 10, 1994. Bishop Taban intended to resume church services in Kapoeta once the area was secured and the church compound had been cleared of mines.

Clement Deng was born into an Animist Dinka family. When he was 12 years old, he left home to serve a Muslim family. At this point Clement was persuaded to become a Muslim & enrolled in a Koranic school. He was troubled, however, by the way the teachers justified the killing of all Christians and other non-Muslims who refused to recite the Islamic creed. After much heart-searching, Clement became a Christian in 1977.

Clement’s conversion infuriated his fellow students in the Koranic school. When he was warned that he had been condemned to death (the penalty prescribed by Islamic law for “apostasy" and that his former friends now planned to kill him, Clement fled to Wad Medani. There he served in the local church until the war erupted in 1983.

A local Arab Muslim leader, Abdullahi, was converted to Christ after he saw a vision of the Lord Jesus. He managed to persuade his whole clan to be converted to Christ and this provoked the Muslim authorities into a violent rage. Amidst the ensuing persecution, Clement fled to Khartoum. While he was serving in the church in Arkwet (a suburb of Khartoum), Clement came to know some Christian boys who had been captured in the South and interned in an Islamic slave training camp. These boys were soon to be sold as slaves to Saudi Arabians, Libyans and Iranians. Clement organised an escape in which one of these slaves managed to evade capture and flee from Khartoum.

Clement was suspected and three days later, five masked members of the Popular Defence Force (PDF) came to his church, assaulted and abducted him. Clement was taken to one of Khartoum’s “ghost houses” where he was beaten and tortured daily with electric rods. They repeatedly told him to stop teaching at the church. Clement did not expect to survive the “ghost house”. His friends, Emmanual Henry, Peter Malwal and John Bol, had never been seen alive again after their arrests. Yet after seven days, Clement was dumped semi-conscious in the road outside his church - probably as a warning to the others. After recovering from his injuries, Clement fled from the North and now serves the Lord at the Marial mission station.

Hisim Musa testified of how his village, Krunga Abdullah, was attacked by the PDF in August 1993. The Muslims killed both his parents, burned down all the crops, the houses and the church. They caught one Christian man, Bolis Alhaj, whom they tortured for 3 days before he died. When the villagers fled to the mountains, 124 died from lack of food.

Marcus Kuku described how the PDF attacked their village and dragged Pastor Matta Noor into his burning house. Another man testified of how the PDF attacked his village, Tabanya, burning all the houses and crops, confiscating all their cattle. All the villagers fled because they said that if they were caught, they would have to choose between becoming a Muslim or being killed.

A fact-finding mission team of Christian Solidarity International recently returned from Sudan and reported that:

“Humanitarian aid is failing to reach hundreds of thousands of victims of war and famine. The Government of Sudan continues to refuse to give access to SPLA-administered areas in the Nuba Mountains and to other areas such as Pariang, Nimule, Chukudum, Ikatos, Mundri, and the Southern Blue Nile Region. Denial of access means that thousands of people are dying from lack of food and medicines.

“Many people in Sudan still suffer from gross violations of human rights. For example, there are reports of recent destruction of villages and of crops. Together with the perpetration of murder and other atrocities by forces in the Nuba Mountains. Many black Africans, especially women and children, are still subject to enslavement by Arabs from the North.

“The Government of Sudan continues to try to transform, by force, the ethnically and religiously diverse country into an Arab, Islamic state, against the wishes of the vast majority of its black African population. The devastating effects of this policy are tantamount to attempted genocide.

“The mass displacement of the population of the South and of the Nuba Mountains, by means of terror, war and the manipulation of aid, is the main outcome of this policy.

“Civil war has created a catastrophe of enormous proportions in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains; an estimated 1.5 million have now died of starvation and disease and over 5 million have been displaced since the outbreak of the latest phase of the war since 1983.

“The war has devastated the infrastructure of these regions, destroying the economic, health, education and communication systems and seriously affecting food production. “Offensives by the Government of Sudan forces during last year’s dry season inflicted great suffering on hundreds of thousands of people.

“Unless this conflict is resolved as a matter of great urgency, the cost to both the people of Sudan and to the international community will be incalculable... There will be even greater demands on the international aid agencies; growing numbers of refugees will pose even greater problems for neighbouring countries; and disease will spread beyond the borders of Sudan.

“The imbalance of military power in favour of the Government of Sudan perpetuates the war and decreases the prospect of a successful outcome of the peace initiatives. Indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets (for example, the areas of Kapoeta and Nimule, January 1995) continues to increase the number of civilians who are killed, wounded and displaced.”

The CSI report recommended that the international community take a strong stand against the genocide being perpetrated in Sudan by imposing an arms and oil embargo upon the Government of Sudan and establishing air exclusion zones for the protection of the civilian population from aerial bombardments. The report warned of the Sudanese governments tactics of using peace talks “as a means of buying time to perpetuate its war of attrition”. In addition, CSI called for permanent access for all humanitarian aid organisations to assist all areas, including the Nuba Mountains. This would also require teams of human rights monitors.

Medical workers in Sudan have reported tens of thousands of deaths due to preventable or treatable diseases. Because of a complete lack of medicines, a large percentage of the population are suffering from meningitis, malaria, whooping cough, TB, bilharzia, Kala-azar (a highly fatal infectious disease), worms, STD’s and eye diseases.

Dal Magok Deng is a 50-year old man who fled, walking for 4 days, from the fighting at Warrap. He suffered from the cold and from malnutrition and is too weak to move. He cannot return home because the PDF would kill him.

Sagol Wek is a 14-year old girl suffering for 2 years with TB of the knee. There is no treatment available.

Atong Ma Wein, aged 25, and son Maen, aged 3 years, are dying of malnutrition:

The mother is blind with an untreated conjunctivitis. Next to this family’s hut are 2 graves, in one of which was buried the husband/father of the family, who had died of starvation last July, aged 45. The other deceased relative, Agui Kon (aged 33), who had also died of starvation last year.

There were 414 such displaced people in Marial, who had all come to the village when they heard about a food distribution scheme. Unfortunately, the distribution stopped in September and the people are too weak to return to their own homes, or unable to do so because of the war.

In the midst of this suffering caused by lack of medicines and food, the mission team saw stacks of boxes of chalk provided by UNICEF. Although educational materials are always needed, it seemed inappropriate for such large quantities of chalk to be transported to a place where more basic essentials, such as food, blankets and medicines were so desperately needed that people were dying from the lack of them.

At Nyarweng the only source of water is a pond of filthy water, used by both the cattle and the people. As the villagers tend not to boil the water, many water-borne diseases are being contracted.

The Medical Assistant at Pariang listed some examples of the tragedies caused by medial shortages:

A woman with TB and a massive lipoma on one knee; there is no TB treatment available and the lipoma cannot be removed, because there are no surgical instruments, suture equipment or dressings;

A man aged 48, Garang Nuel, blind with cataracts, which could have been treated successfully, if treatment had been available;

A boy aged 9, Simon Ngor, with an infected wound, which is festering because no antibiotics are available;

A young mother, aged 28 with two children, aged 6 and 12, both dying of Kala Azar; like so many other people, she had come to Pariang in the hope of medical treatment, but in vain.

The medical workers pleaded for any donations of medicines, surgical equipment or immunizations which could enable them to treat the epidemic diseases which are devastating the people of Southern Sudan.

In the face of such overwhelming needs, our missionaries feel completely inadequate. We cannot meet all the needs - but we can meet some of the needs. And that whi we can do - we must do by the Grace of God.

Please continue to pray for our missionaries to the Sudan. George and Maretha arrived safely after an arduous 5 000 km overland journey. Their first report told us: “We have made wonderful contacts in a very short time. There are a number of humanitarian relief agencies working here, but evangelism, Gospel literature, and spiritual work seem to be the lowest on everyone’s priority list. There is a huge need for our ministry here. Everyone so far is positive and co-operative. We are already invited to teach at a national pastor’s conference in Sudan. Bibles and Christian literature are scarce and are in much demand.”

As soon as is possible, another Frontline mission team will travel up to resupply and assist our missionaries to Sudan.

“The Sudanese will raise their hands in prayer to God." - Psalm 68:31 (TEV)

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