Sudan’s Christians Among Hardest Hit As War, Famine, and Cholera Crisis Deepen

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News

KHARTOUM (Worthy News) – Sudan’s roughly two million Christians are among the hardest hit in the country’s devastating civil war, with some believers forced to eat animal feed and even grass to survive, according to Christian rights investigators.

Sudan, a mainly Muslim nation, ranks as the fifth-worst nation worldwide for Christian persecution, according to the advocacy group Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List.

Christians — estimated at just 4 percent of Sudan’s mainly Muslim population — face what investigators describe as a “double whammy”: like the rest of Sudan’s people, they endure chronic food shortages and indiscriminate violence.

However, they are also singled out for discrimination, persecution, and church demolitions by both warring factions.

A long-standing Pentecostal church in Bahri — also known as Khartoum North, part of the capital region — was reportedly torn down by the government under the pretext of rezoning, despite serving worshippers for three decades, several sources said.

DEADLY CIVIL WAR

The civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has left the nation shattered.

Analysts estimate that as many as 150,000 people may have been killed, though international monitors stress this number is an estimate, as access is limited and many deaths from famine and disease go unrecorded.

The United Nations Human Rights Office confirmed that at least 3,384 civilians were killed in just the first half of 2025, many in Darfur.

Nearly 1,000 of those deaths were executions carried out by armed groups.

A particularly deadly attack came on September 19, 2025, when an RSF drone strike hit a mosque in El Fasher, North Darfur, during prayers, killing at least 70-75 worshippers, including children.

MILLIONS DISPLACED

The war has caused the world’s largest displacement crisis, with between 13 million and 15 million people forced from their homes, according to United Nations and humanitarian groups.

Families are trapped in camps facing siege tactics, blocked aid routes, and hunger. More than 700,000 children are at risk of acute malnutrition, aid agencies say.

The humanitarian situation is reportedly worsening further with disease outbreaks. Patrick Youssef, Africa Regional Director for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC), said Sudan is battling its worst cholera outbreak in four years.

“Sudan faces its worst cholera outbreak in four years across the country, with 2,500 cases reported in Khartoum since June,” Youssef said.

“We really pray that it’s contained within days or weeks … My worst nightmare would be a bigger spread in Khartoum, if the populations want to return back to Khartoum,” he added.

CHRISTIANS UNDER PRESSURE

Amid this turmoil, Sudan’s Christians continue to be targeted.

Open Doors reports that church buildings and Christian homes have been seized, looted, or destroyed, while Christians face harassment both from government authorities and rebel forces.

Open Doors and other Christian advocacy organizations warn that Sudanese believers are often overlooked by the international community, despite facing what they call systematic persecution.

At the same time, United Nations experts and rights groups have accused both the SAF and RSF of committing atrocities in Darfur that “may amount to genocide,” citing ethnically targeted killings, mass rapes, and the burning of villages.

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