COMPASSION IN ACTION
transforming lives
Barnabas rescue mission 2,000 Christian women and children airlifted from danger in Sudan
£347,000 (US $562,000; €434,000) to provide flights for 2,000 Christian women and children from Khartoum to Juba £33,217 (US $53,789; €41,575) to provide essential supplies for Christians at the Malakal returnee camp Christian women and children helped by Barnabas to return home to South Sudan
September Barnabas Fund began a major rescue operation to airlift 2,000 of the neediest, most vulnerable Christians stranded and endangered in Sudan to safety and a new life in South Sudan.
In
After a number of significant obstacles were overcome, the first of 12 chartered flights departed from Khartoum for Juba on 19 September. The rescue mission is ongoing. About two-thirds of the women are widows. Hundreds of thousands of people of Southern origin were stripped of their citizenship of the strongly Islamic Sudan after the independence of the mainly Christian South Sudan in July 2011. Many of the Southerners living in the North had fled there during the long and bitter civil war in which the South was completely ravaged, its infrastructure destroyed and two million people killed. After Sudan told them to get out of the country, Southerners began making their way home, but the poorest and most vulnerable remained trapped in a place that is increasingly hostile to their presence.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has made it very clear that the Christians are not welcome. He has said that the country’s next constitution will be 100% Islamic and has promised to strengthen sharia law. When anger flared in Sudan over the American film Innocence of Muslims, threats were made against Christians in Khartoum. As well as facing danger, the impoverished Christians were living in dire conditions in makeshift shelters on the outskirts of Khartoum for many months, without the resources to help themselves. But now, having been taken to safety, they are embarking on new lives in the mainly Christian South Sudan. They were welcomed at temporary reception facilities set up by the South Sudanese government in Juba before moving on to extended family connections around the country. They also received practical support from the Church in South Sudan. The plans to evacuate the 2,000 Christian women and children were praised by the South Sudanese ambassador in Khartoum. We and our partners,
Africa Inland Church – Sudan, have worked closely with him on this challenging rescue mission. In addition to paying for the 2,000 flights – at a cost of about £175 (US $283; €219) per person – we also sent a grant to help other Christians arriving, many of them on foot, at the Hai Salaam returnee camp in Malakal. This was used to provide food, cooking utensils, mosquito nets, canvas and plastic sheeting for shelters and other essential items.
Our partner in Malakal said the help was “well received with heartfelt thanksgiving and God’s name was blessed richly and lifted high for remembering them through this journey”.
Project references 48-1078 (airlift) 48-1056 (aid for returnees)
BARNABAS AID NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
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