Pressure on Christians continues with harassment and court cases
Sudan’s Christians fear their country is sliding back into the control of Islamists after last year’s coup, and recent incidents indicate they might be right.
Despite the fact that apostasy — leaving one faith to take up another — was decriminalized in 2020 and it is legal in Sudan for non-Muslims to be married to each other, a Sudanese Christian couple is on trial for adultery.
Nada Hamad Koko and her husband, Hamouda Teya Kaffi, living in Gezira State, were both Muslim when they married in 2016. When, two years later, Hamouda converted to Christianity, Nada’s family forced her to have their marriage annulled by an Islamic, or Sharia, court.
In Sudan it is unlawful for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man, and at the time, leaving Islam was punishable with the death penalty.
Under so much pressure, they divorced and Nada returned to live with her family and she took their two children. After apostasy was decriminalized in 2020, the couple reunited in 2021 and Nada announced she, too, had become a Christian.
The family reported them to the authorities and they were arrested on charges of adultery, because the Sharia court had declared them divorced, and the prosecutor regarded Nada’s conversion as not valid. The couple are now on trial and face a possible sentence of 100 lashes and a year in internal exile.
If this sounds familiar, it is. In 2014 Mariam Ibrahim was sentenced to death for apostasy and 100 lashes for adultery. She was released however and has become an advocate for those suffering religious freedom violations.
Intense pressure
Christian converts in Muslim-majority Sudan face intense pressure from family, community and the government. For example, three Christian converts in Sudan’s western Darfur region are pressured to return to Islam. They have endured beatings, received death threats and have lost their family, home and other possessions.
Meanwhile, a pastor and another church leader were arrested during a Bible study that was held at the center of the Independent Baptist Church in Omdurman, near the capital Khartoum, on 14 June.
Pastor Kabashi Idris of the African Inland Church, and evangelist Yacoub Ishakh of the Baptist church, were arrested and face charges of “violating public order”, their lawyer, Sinbago Awad, told the Morning Star News. They were released on bail the same day and might face trial in a few weeks’ time. In May, police had summoned both men for interrogation after a complaint by a Muslim neighbor.
Sudan’s transition to civilian rule after 30 years of military dictatorship under former president Omar al-Bashir was halted by a coup by the army in October last year.
Since then, Sudan’s military has started to give influential positions to former members of the National Congress Party and allies of al-Bashir, who was removed in 2019. Under the NCP with al-Bashir at the helm, a strict interpretation of Sharia was introduced and institutionalized.
In recent months there has been an increase in interference in church affairs by government-backed groups, and at least one court ruling ordering the demolition part of a church.
Please Pray
Lift up Nada Hamad Koko and her husband, Hamouda Teya Kaffi in prayer, let them feel Gods peace and hand in this situation. May God control the ruling of this court case in their favour. Pray for Sudan as a whole, that they will step back from Christians and let them live in peace. May God soften the hearts of those around Nada and Hamouda.
