El Fasher Siege Forces Pastor’s Escape
Rev’d Daramali Abudigin, the last Christian minister still serving in El Fasher, escaped his besieged St Matthew Episcopal Church in mid-September after armed men stormed the sanctuary, killing two worshippers and injuring several more (Religion News Service).
He had stayed since RSF fighters began confronting Sudanese Armed Forces in April 2023, maintaining daily prayers during months of shelling. After the attack, Anglican supporters in the UK funded an airlift that finally removed Abudigin and forty civilians from the city’s outskirts.
Rapid Support Forces and Humanitarian Blockade
The RSF encircled El Fasher in May 2024, limiting escape to one hazardous 60-kilometre corridor toward Tawila. Aid agencies estimate 260,000 civilians remain trapped, facing drone strikes like the one that killed 85 worshippers at a mosque three days after the church assault (UN reports).
Roadblocks and informal tolls have slowed food convoys, and a UN-declared famine has already gripped neighbouring villages. Relief teams blame the same travel restrictions for hampering rescue efforts after the 31 August landslide in Central Darfur’s mountains.
Vatican Envoy Brings Papal Solidarity
Archbishop Séamus Patrick Horgan, the Holy See’s envoy to South Sudan, crossed into Sudan from 11-21 September to deliver what he called “a word of closeness” from Pope Francis to communities “hard pressed from every side” (Vatican News).
Meeting transitional government officials in Port Sudan, Khartoum and Omdurman, the nuncio stressed that freedom of religion must anchor any political settlement, adding that war makes Muslims and Christians “suffer the same fate” and must therefore unite citizens in reconstruction efforts.
Faith Communities Adapt Amid Conflict
Missionary Fr Jorge Naranjo in Port Sudan said the papal envoy’s visit filled a “pastoral vacuum” left after most clergy fled Khartoum. Lay catechists now shoulder catechesis, marriages and funerals, demonstrating how local initiative keeps faith communities alive amid institutional collapse (Aid to the Church in Need).
Across borders, Bishop Paul Swarbrick warned that Sudan’s conflict is fuelling the world’s worst displacement crisis, pushing families back and forth between Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia’s Tigray, yet receiving less global attention than other wars.
Regional Peace Efforts Face New Tests
South Sudanese church leaders, uneasy at home, observed that their own 2018 peace deal risks stalling after the trial of opposition leader Riek Machar. Cardinal Stephen Ameyu urged politicians to protect gains “won at great cost” lest regional instability deepen.
With armed groups entrenched and humanitarian corridors shrinking, clerics across the Nile Basin now present an unusual united front, framing peace not as a sectarian wish but as a regional security necessity that can no longer be sidelined.