ICC Note: It is clearly an awful reality that church leaders in Sudan must face a volatile government which decides arbitrarily to demolish one church or the other simply because of its power to do so and hatred of Christians. The grounds for this church’s demolition are particularly incredulous – how could this church have been built “illegally” when it was built before the onset of Omar al-Bashir’s Islamic regime in 1989? Moreover, there is no real provision for churches to be built “legally” or  even at all since the government’s refusal to grant any more permits for the building of new churches. The absence of law or, quite frankly, any morality in Sudan’s treatment of Christians is greatly upsetting. 

8/9/2016 Khartoum, Sudan (allAfrica) – State authorities have issued a warning notice about the demolition of the church in El Haj Yousif in Khartoum North, to take place within one week. They reasoned that the structure has been built illegally.

Hudo Centre reported that the church leadership received a resolution letter from land authorities in Khartoum, warning them that the church will be demolished. They are given one week to evacuate the church, otherwise further legal procedures will be taken and the church will pay the demolishing costs.

The church was built on the land in 1976, according to the activist group, a considerable time before the National Islamic Front took power of Sudan by a military coup in 1989. The freedom of religion has witnessed a significant clampdown since then, Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG) said earlier this year.

In July, fourteen people, including priests, were sentenced to paying a fine for obstructing police that tried to vacate the Bahri Evangelical Church. In October 2015, two churches of the British Evangelical Lutheran Church in Omdurman were demolished in Omdurman. The government has stopped granting permits to build new churches in Sudan, Christian religious leaders said.