Categories: christianity
Date: 30 March 2009 23:16:51
Sudan
Languages: Arabic, Dinka, Nubian, Beja, Nuer, local languages
The history of Sudan has produced a mainly Muslim North and largely Christian South. The proportion of Christians in the whole country is around 23% but in the South it is closer to 70%.
For most of the past 50 years Sudan has been racked by a civil war split roughly along north/south lines. A peace deal was agreed in 2005 which has given the south considerable autonomy although tensions and violence persist. There is still huge unrest in the western region of Darfur where there is apparent ethnic cleansing of non-Arab groups.
Conditions remain difficult for Christians in the north, which is predominantly Muslim, especially for converts from Islam. Religious allegiance has apparently been used to withhold essential international food supplies and drinking water from defenceless civilians.
[That's interesting. The post has appeared under Monday 30th March timed at 11.18 p.m. It is most definitely 00.19 now on Tuesday 31 March. I wonder if there is a blip caused by the clocks having gone forward on Saturday/Sunday night?]