The plight of people in war-torn Sudan was witnessed first hand by Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines and Bishop of Bradford, Toby Howarth during a recent visit to our link diocese.
This significant visit to a country riven by conflict was aimed at showing our diocese’s ongoing support for the many Christians displaced by hostilities, explained Bishop Nick:
“Essentially, we went to visit our sisters and brothers in the Episcopal Church of Sudan. Although Port Sudan itself is safe, we visited camps for displaced people and refugees, listening to stories of loss at every level: family, land, home, possessions, jobs, hopes. 2,000 people in a single camp, many of them children living in fear or uncertainty and with little food or effective sanitation,” Bishop Nick said.
“We also listened to stories of terrible violence. One pastor told how his home had been raided in Khartoum and everything destroyed or stolen. After his fourth beating by RSF soldiers, he was asked how he wanted to die. It was his Muslim neighbour who saved and gave him refuge until he could escape and make his way to Port Sudan.
“Our meetings with senior politicians and intelligence personnel, with Christians and Muslims, brought home to us some of the realities which cannot be learned from a Zoom conversation or an email trail,” Bishop Nick said.
“If noticed by western media at all, Sudan’s conflict is normally presented as a fight between two power-crazed generals; the reality is that the Rapid Support Forces, stacked with mercenaries and soldiers from surrounding countries and funded and armed by countries such as the United Arab Emirates, is indiscriminately murdering and destroying anything that comes across their path in an attempt to take over the country. This is not a conflict of equals – in any sense.
“In conversations with Archbishop Ezekiel, who now runs the whole province from a small desk in the corner of his bare bedroom in Port Sudan, we pledged our continuing support – our love and commitment to him and his people. Thank you to all in this diocese who have given money in order to keep besieged clergy paid, fed and resourced to feed and serve others.”
Bishop Toby told how they hoped to make people feel that they are not abandoned:
"The main reason Bishop Nick and I went was basically to say, 'you are not forgotten, we pray for you every day, we love you, we stand with you'," he said.
"It's awful. You hear these numbers - more than 10 million people displaced, more than three million children in danger of dying from malnutrition - but it really came home to me when we visited a camp for internally displaced people," he said.
However, he said he had also met "an extraordinary woman called Victoria, in a broken down tent".
Bishop Toby said in the days after fighting broke out, Victoria had encountered "all these people sleeping on beaches with nothing".
"So, she found a place on ground which used to be an old social club, cleared it and moved the people there," he added.
Bishop Toby said that over the period of a year, Victoria had "campaigned, advocated, found tents and a toilet block and done incredible work through love".
He said Victoria told him: "What does love do in a situation like that? Love has to reach out."