11 Christians killed on their way to Christmas celebrations

A Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) drone strike on Dec. 25 killed at least 11 Christians on their way to Christmas celebrations in South Kordofan state, Sudan, sources said.

In addition to the 11 Christians killed, at least 18 other people were seriously wounded in the attack on congregation members making their way to the Episcopal Church of Sudan in Julud (Biyam Jald area) on Christmas morning, said an area Christian attorney.

“The church [building] was not hit, but a congregation who were marching in procession towards the church were targeted,” the attorney told Morning Star News, requesting anonymity.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North), which has joined the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in its fight against the SAF, and the Foundation Alliance reported that 12 civilians were killed and 19 others injured in the SAF strike on the “Biyam Jald” area in South Kordofan state, according to the Sudan Tribune. The area is controlled by the SPLM-North.

“The drone targeted civilians who were celebrating Christmas,” the SPLM reported.

The attack follows a Nov. 29 drone attack by the SAF targeting a medical clinic center in the Kumi area of South Kordofan state that reportedly killed12 people and injured 19 others, including children and women.

Another drone strike on Dec. 5 targeted Ghadeer locality, Kalogi, South Kordofan, killing more than 10 children ages 5 to 7 inside a kindergarten, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Conditions in Sudan have worsened since the civil war that broke out between the RSF and the SAF in April 2023. Sudan registered increases in the number of Christians killed and sexually assaulted and Christian homes and businesses attacked, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List (WWL) report.

“Christians of all backgrounds are trapped in the chaos, unable to flee. Churches are shelled, looted and occupied by the warring parties,” the report stated.

Both the RSF and the SAF are Islamist forces that have attacked displaced Christians on accusations of supporting the other’s combatants.

Sudan is 93% Muslim, with adherents of ethnic traditional religion 4.3% of the population, while Christians constitute 2.3%, according to Joshua Project.

The conflict between the RSF and the SAF, which had shared military rule in Sudan following an October 2021 coup, has terrorized civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere, killing tens of thousands and displacing more than 12 million people within and beyond Sudan’ borders, according to the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR).

The SAF’s Gen. Abdelfattah al-Burhan and his then-vice president, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were in power when civilian parties in March 2023 agreed on a framework to re-establish a democratic transition the next month, but disagreements over military structure torpedoed final approval.

Burhan sought to place the RSF — a paramilitary outfit with roots in the Janjaweed militias that had helped former strongman Bashir put down rebels — under the regular army’s control within two years, while Dagolo would accept integration within nothing fewer than 10 years.

Both military leaders have Islamist backgrounds while trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom.

Sudan was ranked No. 5 among the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian in Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List (WWL), down from No. 8 the prior year. Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 of the WWL list for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in 2021.

Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021. After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government had managed to undo some sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.

With the Oct. 25, 2021, coup, Christians in Sudan feared the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law.

The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.

In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.

This article was originally published by Morning Star News.