New crackdown on Christian converts in Sudan

July 26, 2013

Since Sudan was divided in 2011, when South Sudan became independent, converts to Christianity have come under heavier pressure in Sudan, the Fides news service reports.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has announced his intention to strengthen Islamic shari’a law, which stipulates that Muslims who forsake the faith are punishable by death. No Christian converts have been executed in the past 20 years, but about 170 people have been imprisoned on charges of apostasy.

Government officials in Sudan are aggressively hunting down converts, Fides reports. Christians have been arrested and questioned, their passports and other working documents seized, their cell phones and computers confiscated so that police can track their acquaintances.

 

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Further information:

• "Converted being tracked down" (Fides)