Christian affairs advisor assaulted, threatened in Sudan capital

Boutros Badawi, the advisor for Christian affairs to Sudan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, was assaulted by armed men as he returned to his home in El Salama neighbourhood in southern Khartoum on Sunday evening.

In a post via social media, Badawi said that he was accosted by four armed men in a car, who blocked his way in a square located next to the El Salama grocery station south of the capital. They threatened him with a weapon, beat him with the gun, and threatened that he will be killed if he continues to open church files with the Empowerment Removal Committee and the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Badawi accused members of the former regime in the churches of being behind the attack by sending armed elements to beat and threaten him. He explained that the elements of the former regime have not been dismantled so far. Badawi said that after the injury, he was transferred to the Doctors Hospital on Africa Street, and after receiving treatment, he will go to the police station to open a report of the assault.

During the deposed Omar Al Bashir regime, (1989-2019), non-Muslims were regularly oppressed. Christian worshipers were prevented from visiting churches on Sundays, and a number of church buildings, many of them belonging to the poor Church of Sudan, were demolished. Since 2017, Christian schools were forced to follow the Muslim week calendar from Sunday to Thursday.

One of the first decisions made by the then Transitional Military Council after the ousting of Al Bashir on April 11 last years, concerned the permission to enjoy Sunday as the official weekend recess day for Christian schools throughout Sudan.