Minority Faiths Targeted Amid Sudan’s Ongoing Conflicts

Introduction

Sudan has historically been one of the most hostile environments for religious minorities in the world. Under Omar al-Bashir's three-decade rule, the imposition of Islamic law (sharia) across the country—including in areas with large non-Muslim populations—created a legal framework that systematically discriminated against Christians, animists, and those who left Islam. While the transitional government that took power after al-Bashir's fall in 2019 repealed some of the most egregious provisions, fundamental structural discrimination persists, and the outbreak of war in April 2023 has created new dangers for religious minorities whose communities and places of worship have been caught in the crossfire. This article examines the legal and practical situation of religious minorities in Sudan, the international obligations at stake, and the implications for asylum seekers from religious minority backgrounds.

Historical Background

Sudan's religious landscape was transformed by the imposition of sharia under President Nimeiry in 1983. The so-called "September Laws" introduced Islamic penal provisions including hudud punishments (fixed penalties for crimes mentioned in the Quran, including amputation for theft and flogging for alcohol consumption) and the death penalty for apostasy. These laws were applied across the country, regardless of the religious composition of local communities. In the south—where Christian and animist populations were concentrated—the imposition of sharia was a major driver of the resumption of civil war in 1983.

When Omar al-Bashir came to power in 1989 through a coup backed by the Islamist National Islamic Front, religious discrimination was codified and systematised further. The 1991 Criminal Act retained the death penalty for apostasy and criminalised blasphemy and proselytising by non-Muslims. Churches were demolished or had their construction permits denied. Christian preachers were arrested and deported. The Sudan Human Rights Observatory documented the progressive erosion of the physical and institutional infrastructure of Christian communities throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Legal Framework: Persistence of Discriminatory Laws

Following al-Bashir's removal in April 2019, Sudan's transitional government enacted a series of legislative reforms intended to address the most egregious human rights abuses. The Transitional Constitutional Document (TCD) of August 2019 guaranteed freedom of religion and belief, and the 2020 Amended Criminal Act repealed the apostasy provisions of the 1991 Criminal Act and removed some blasphemy provisions. These were significant steps.

However, fundamental problems remain. Discrimination in family law persists: non-Muslims remain subject to Islamic family law in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance in ways that disadvantage them structurally. The Personal Status Laws applicable to non-Muslims lack the codification and court infrastructure that Muslim family law enjoys, leaving non-Muslim individuals—particularly women—without adequate legal protection in family disputes. Church demolitions, while less frequent after 2019, have continued in the context of the broader conflict. The State Committee established to address confiscated church property has moved slowly and many properties have not been returned.

Members of the Sudanese Coptic Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant communities, as well as followers of indigenous African religions, continue to report harassment by local authorities, obstruction of religious gatherings, and difficulty obtaining permits for the construction or repair of places of worship. The Beja people in eastern Sudan, who practice a blend of Islam and pre-Islamic traditions, have faced particular pressure from religious authorities who regard their practices as deviant.

Impact of the 2023 War on Religious Communities

The outbreak of war between the SAF and RSF in April 2023 has had a devastating impact on religious minority communities, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur. Churches in Khartoum and Omdurman were damaged or destroyed during urban fighting. The RSF, which has operated with particular brutality in residential areas, was documented by USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) using at least three churches as military bases, desecrating religious symbols, and looting religious property.

In Darfur—where the non-Arab African Muslim population has long been targeted by RSF predecessor forces—the 2023 war has seen the resumption of mass atrocity crimes that include the targeting of community and religious leaders. The killing of Sheikh Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Nugdallah, a respected religious leader in El Geneina, North Darfur, in June 2023 by RSF-aligned forces, was documented by Human Rights Watch as part of a systematic campaign against community leadership structures.

Comparison: Freedom of Religion in the Region

International Legal Framework

Sudan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 18 of the ICCPR guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the freedom to change one's religion or belief. The UN Human Rights Committee, in General Comment No. 22 (1993), explicitly stated that Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic, and atheistic beliefs, and that no restrictions may be placed on the freedom to adopt or change a religion or belief. Retaining laws—even theoretically—that punish apostasy violates this obligation.

Sudan is also a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, Article 8 of which protects freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has recognised that discriminatory application of state law on grounds of religion violates the Charter's non-discrimination provisions.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981)—while not a binding treaty—provides important interpretive guidance, affirming that states must ensure that no one shall be subject to discrimination on the grounds of religion, and that freedom of religion includes the freedom to change religion and to manifest religion in worship, observance, practice, and teaching.

The Mariam Ibrahim Case

The 2014 case of Mariam Ibrahim illustrates the operational reality of religious discrimination in Sudan under the al-Bashir government. Mariam Ibrahim was a Sudanese woman raised as a Christian who was sentenced to death for apostasy (on the grounds that her father was Muslim and she was therefore deemed Muslim under Sudanese law) and to flogging for adultery (for her marriage to a Christian man, deemed invalid because she was classified as Muslim). She gave birth while chained in a Sudanese prison. International outcry led to her eventual release and emigration to the United States. The case is representative of a broader pattern in which the state imposed Muslim identity on individuals with mixed religious heritage or those who had converted from Islam.

Expert Analysis

"Sudan's 2020 reforms were a genuine and important step, but they did not undo three decades of institutional discrimination against religious minorities. Churches that were demolished cannot simply be un-demolished by repealing a law. Communities that dispersed under persecution cannot simply be reconstituted by a declaration of religious freedom. And the current war has added a new layer of catastrophe: places of worship are being used as military bases, religious leaders are being killed, and the entire infrastructure of minority religious life in Khartoum is being destroyed. Sudan needs both legal reform and sustained attention to the physical reconstruction of minority religious communities."

Dr. Tina Ramirez, President, Hardwired Global, testimony to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (2023)

Conclusion

Religious minorities in Sudan have faced systematic legal discrimination, institutional persecution, and physical violence over more than three decades. While the reforms of 2019–2020 represented a meaningful change in direction, they have not fully remedied the structural disadvantages facing Christian, animist, and religiously heterodox Muslim communities. The war that began in April 2023 has imposed new and acute dangers, with religious sites targeted and religious leaders killed. Sudan's obligations under the ICCPR and African Charter require it to guarantee genuinely equal protection of religious freedom for all communities, and to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for attacks on religious minorities. Members of religious minority communities who have fled Sudan may have well-founded claims to refugee protection on grounds of religion under the 1951 Refugee Convention.