Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 113 | Wed 22 Jun 2011

By Elizabeth Kendal

North Sudan’s South Kordofan State is defined by the Nuba Mountains.
Whilst the plains of South Kordofan are populated by pro-Khartoum Arab
Misseriya Baggara nomads, the Nuba Mountains are populated by some 50 non-
Arab, predominantly non-Muslim African tribes collectively known as Nuba.
Long isolated, the Nuba are famous for their unique culture. In 1968 when
the Government of Sudan (GoS) based in Khartoum started acquiring large
tracts of land for mechanised farming, the Baggara began grazing their
cattle on Nuba land, destroying crops and taking over wells in the
process. Tensions soared, exacerbated through the 1970s by drought. By
1983 the Baggara were raiding the Nuba at will and with impunity.

Meanwhile, Dr John Garang had united South Sudan’s various rebel forces to
form the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). In June 1983
the SPLM published its Manifesto calling for a united, secular, democratic
Sudan with equality and rights for all Sudan’s diverse peoples. Khartoum
responded instead by imposing Sharia Law. The South would not submit. The
war was on. In 1984 senior Nuba leaders likewise wanting an end to
Islamisation joined the SPLM/A.

In 1985 a local SPLA taskforce chased a band of Misseriya Baggara raiders
to the outskirts of the Nuba Mts, killing 60. Khartoum responded by
training and arming Baggara militias, known as Murahaliin, for use in a
proxy jihad against the Nuba. When in 1986 an SPLA taskforce came seeking
recruits, young Nuba men flocked to enlist. At that point the Sudan Armed
Forces (SAF) entered the fray, purging Nuba villages of anyone they
suspected of SPLA sympathies. After Omar al-Bashir seized power in
Khartoum in a military coup in 1989, he brought the Baggara Murahaliin
under government control, re-branding them as the Popular Defence Force
(PDF). Commissioned to carry out genocide in the Nuba Mts, the SAF and PDF
murdered the Nuba elite, razed Nuba villages, burnt crops and shut schools
and medical clinics. The areas that survived under SPLA control were then
blockaded against all trade and humanitarian aid. Amidst this, the GoS
established so-called ‘Peace Camps’ (concentration camps) where submission
to the regime and conversion to Islam would win a family GoS food aid.
Hundreds of thousands of Nuba perished in the GoS-engineered famine of
1990-93, rather than submit. Had it not been for Arab smugglers the Nuba
civilisation would have been annihilated.

Despite Dr Garang’s best efforts, when negotiating the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) he had not been able to get the GoS to agree to a
referendum on self-determination for the Nuba. However, Garang assured the
Nuba that if the CPA were implemented then the racist, Islamist regime
would be finished and a ‘New Sudan’ would emerge. So the Nuba signed the
CPA despite their immense dissatisfaction at the lack of a referendum on
Nuba self-determination.

John Garang, the leading advocate of the ‘New Sudan’ vision, died in a
helicopter crash in July 2005 and subsequently the GoS has not implemented
the CPA. Now the South is due to secede on 9 July, leaving numerous SPLA
allies — including the Nuba — stranded in the North. South Kordofan is
the only state in the North with oil and it appears that Khartoum has
begun ethnically cleansing the Nuba Mts — again. This is the regime that
ethnically cleansed the Dinka-Ngok (Southerners) out of Abyei in March-
April 2011 and annexed the contested border region.

Violence exploded in South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli, on 5 June as SAF
and SPLA troops clashed. Reportedly, SAF and Baggara Arab militias have
been conducting door-to-door ‘sweep’ operations in the cities and towns,
killing everyone they suspect of SPLA sympathies. According to Bishop
Andudu Adam Elnail of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli, ‘churches and
pastors were directly targeted’. Christians have told Compass Direct News
they have witnessed clergy being shot and killed by the sword before their
eyes, to shouts of Allahu akbar. The Catholic, Episcopal and Church of
Christ churches in Kadugli have been looted and torched. On Sunday 12 June
the governor of North Kordofan declared jihad on the Nuba, most of whom
are Christian. Ahmed Haroun, recently installed by Khartoum as governor of
South Kordofan by a fraudulent poll, is wanted by the International
Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Hundreds
of thousands of Nuba have been displaced. Bishop Elnail requests
Christians to observe Sunday 26 June as a day of prayer and fasting for an
end to the violence. The Bishop laments: ‘Once again we are facing the
nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our
culture and society from the face of the earth.’

Furthermore thousands of Southerners have been forced to flee GoS aerial
bombardment of the oil regions of South Sudan’s Unity State. The regime
may well be aiming to seize as much as possible of the South’s oil-rich
territory before the South secedes on 9 July.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO —

* have mercy on Sudan’s long-suffering marginalised peoples, drawing them
to himself so that in faith and dependence they will call upon the
sovereign and supreme Lord of Hosts and witness his deliverance.

* burst through the forces of the Islamist, genocidal regime of Omar
al-Bashir (2 Samuel 5:20), so driven by racial and religious hatred
that unconscionably (arrogantly; complacently; see Isaiah 37:29) it
would orchestrate the genocide of all Sudan’s non-Arab and non-Muslim
peoples; may the Lord defend his people.

‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’ (Luke 1:37 ESV)

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
———————————————————–

GENOCIDAL SUDAN REGIME TARGETS NUBA

Violence exploded on 5 June in Sudan’s South Kordofan State, the only
North Sudan state with oil. South Kordofan’s Nuba Mountains are populated
by some 50 non-Arab, mostly non-Muslim Nuba tribes. Sudan Armed Forces and
Arab militias have been conducting door-to-door ‘sweep’ operations,
killing everyone they suspect opposes the Northern regime. In the capital,
Kadugli, the Catholic, Episcopal and Church of Christ churches have been
looted and torched. According to Episcopal Bishop Elnail, ‘Churches and
pastors were directly targeted.’ Christians have told Compass Direct News
they witnessed clergy being executed to shouts of Allahu akbar. Hundreds
of thousands of predominantly Christian Nuba have been displaced. Amidst
tensions elsewhere, South Sudan is due to secede on 9 July. Please pray
for Sudan and its Christians.

——————–

We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Summary might
also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their
worship by people who are leading in prayer.

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’ <http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com>.

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team.
Previous bulletins may be viewed at
<http://www.ea.org.au/ea-family/Religious-Liberty/Prayer-Postings.aspx>.

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