Praying and Fasting for a Breakthrough

Traumatized Nuba have fled from their homes to a U.N. camp for refugees. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The situation for our brothers and sisters in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan is looking increasingly grim. You have heard of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Well, what the Islamist regime in Khartoum currently is doing in the Nuba Mountains goes beyond even those crimes against humanity. Khartoum is waging a campaign of extermination of an entire people. Unless God intervenes, the Nuba people – some fifty tribes of black, African Sudanese – could soon cease to exist in their homeland. That is why my friend, the Rt. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail, Bishop of Kadugli and Nuba Mountains in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, has asked churches around the world to fast and pray for the Nuba Mountains this Sunday, June 26, 2011.

“Once again we are facing the nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our culture and society from the face of the earth,” Bishop Andudu writes. “It is not a war between armies that is being fought in our land, but the utter destruction of our way of life and our history, as demonstrated by the genocide of our neighbors and relatives in Darfur. This is a war of domination and eradication, at its core it is a war of terror by the government of Sudan against their people.”

Please remember Bishop Andudu’s words and the following report when you see statements from the U.S. government or the media. See if those statements ring true against the Bishop’s words and factual evidence. For instance, a June 22 press statement from President Obama reads “both parties have a responsibility to end the current violence and allow immediate humanitarian access to desperate people who have been driven from their homes and are now cut off from outside help.” (emphasis added)

This is not a war between armies; it is a war of terror by the government of Sudan against their people. It is both erroneous and offensive to cast as morally equivalent the government of Sudan, attacking the people of Nuba Mountains and conducting a racially-motivated extermination of this black, African people group, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, defending the people of Nuba Mountains with no help from the worse-than-useless United Nations Mission in Sudan troops.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), an Arab militia recognized as the “Al Qaeda of Sudan,” launched their attack on the Nuba Mountains on June 5, 2011, subjecting the Nuba to daily aerial bombardment by Antonovs and MiG’s. Meanwhile, the PDF was armed and given a standing order from the President of Sudan to move from house to house and “sweep away the rubbish. If you see a Nuba, just clean it up.”

A Nuba resident of the capital, Kadugli, told the press how he saw two trucks of people with their hands tied and blindfolded, being driven out to where diggers were making holes for graves on the edge of town. In his June 16 testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, Ambassador Roger Winter, former State Department Special Representative on Sudan, told members of Congress that “Nuba are positioned for liquidation by Khartoum forces.”

The most recent reports from the Nuba Mountains are detailing the use of chemical weapons. This is not new for Khartoum. Although the U.N. refused to acknowledge this additional crime against humanity, Khartoum forces most assuredly used various chemical weapons during the war. Now they have dropped chemical weapons from bombers on the villages of Taferi and Hajar Al Nar near the city of Kadugli. Eyewitnesses say that plants, animals, and people have died.

If Khartoum’s campaign is allowed to continue, it could mean the actual end of the Nuba. We are hoping for diplomatic and military interventions, but this is spiritual warfare. Christians and others around the world who believe in the power of a Sovereign God need to treat it as such, fasting and praying for the Nuba this weekend. Please encourage your pastor to have a special time of prayer for the Nuba this weekend.