Between June 9 and 11, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out coordinated airstrikes on three churches in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Sudan. The attacks targeted the Sudanese Episcopal Church, the African Inland Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, leaving at least five dead—including Father Luka Jumu—and injuring dozens more. Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s founder, Mervyn Thomas, condemned the strikes as more than just attacks on buildings, calling them a “brutal assault on the right to freedom of religion.” According to Thomas, the RSF has deliberately weaponized churches, turning them into military bases as part of their campaign of ethnic violence against non-Arab Christians.

El Fasher has become a fiercely contested hotspot in Sudan’s ongoing civil war, and churches there have long served as both spiritual and physical sanctuaries for displaced families. Witnesses described waking to the sound of shelling and chaos as violence engulfed their neighborhoods. Since the conflict erupted in 2023, the RSF has increasingly targeted religious minorities, especially Christians, through bombings, looting, and forced displacement. The death of Father Jumu—known for his peacebuilding efforts—has devastated the local Christian community. Pastor Ibrahim Okot lamented the erosion of religious protections in Sudan, noting that Christians who were once safeguarded by the constitution are now facing brutal persecution under civil war conditions.

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SOURCE: International Christian Concern