Slavery in Sudan

Volume 4 1995

Tens of thousands of Sudanese Christian men, women and children have been kidnapped and sold as slaves by government soldiers and Arab militias. A recent research trip by Christian Solidarity International to the Nuba Mountains gathered shocking evidence of the ongoing Islamic slave trade in Sudan.

An Arab slave trader openly described how marauding gangs of soldiers have regularly swooped on villages of Christians - killing, looting and capturing as many slaves as possible. This campaign was part of the Islamic government’s campaign to Islamise the South of Sudan. “The slaves, in most cases children and young women, are taken north where they are forced to provide agricultural labour, domestic work and sexual services against their will” reported one CSI team member. “Slavery is used to debilitate the Christian communities, they are forcibly dispersed and/or imprisoned. They have to surrender and submit to becoming Muslims or they are killed.”

An Arab slave trader, Ibrahim, described how he resold 162 African children and young women back to their families. Ibrahim claimed that the raids are organised by the government of Sudan (GOS) which arms the Arab militias and encourages them to attack African villages in the South - keeping the booty and capturing slaves. Some slaves are kept by their captors, most are sold for profit. The train which runs from El Obeid to Wau, arming the GOS garrisons in the South, is used as a slave train on its return jouney north transporting those captured by the militia raids.

One 27 year old mother, Ashai Angok Berjok, described how she had been captured with her 2 daughters - 4 year old Ayaar and 9 year old Akec: “The Arabs came early in the morning. We were captured by Nueri Omer and forced to walk seven days to his home in Dhelem. He raped me along the way. Little Ayaar was tied tightly to the back of his horse. As a result her left leg is now paralysed. At Ohelem we were put inside a big fence without any shelter, with many other slaves. Nueri Omer used me as a concubine. Ayaar and I were saved when my husband came with an Arab dealer. My owner made my husband pay 50 000 Sudanese pounds for me and Ayaar. My husband did not have enough money for our 9 year old daughter, Akec, so we had to leave her behind.”

The research team also documented many other atrocities, acts of torture and instances of aerial bombardment of civilian targets.

They estimate that 1 .5 million people have perished and more than 5 million have been displaced and lost their homes out of a population of 8 million (mainly Christian) South Sudanese. They also noted that the government of Sudan is intimately involved in the Islamicist terrorist network including the Hamas and Hezbollah. Sudan’s efforts to subvert the governments of neighbouring Eritrea and Uganda have caused these countries to sever diplomatic ties with Sudan.

The Middle East Reformed Fellowship reports on the abuse of relief aid. Government sponsored relief agencies are using Muslim missionaries from Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to lure Christians to convert to Islam with promises of regular economic aid only to those who embrace Islam. Those Sudanese who convert are given “conversion certificates” which qualifies them to receive food and medication from Muslim centres. One Protestant evangelist was offered an enormous sum of money and an attractive salary if he converted to Islam. He presented the Gospel as his rejection of the offer.

A prominent Sudanese pastor also expressed his disappointment in “the growing tendencies of so-called Christian relief agencies to shy away from involvement in evangelism, Bible teaching or Scripture distribution.”

One man expressed what we have heard from many others in similar words: “We are grateful that you have taken the trouble to come here to see this tragedy and we hope that your words describing our grief will go around the world.”

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