Sudan

Franklin Graham has condemned Wednesday's attack on the Heiban Bible Study schools and has expressed concern for the welfare of the Sudanese people.

Franklin Graham, CEO and president of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, issued a statement condemning the bombing of Bible College buildings near the Nuba Mountains in Sudan.

The Sudanese air force dropped eight bombs on two Heiban Bible College buildings in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan on Wednesday. The attack destroyed the buildings, which were full of students and teachers, but no one was hurt or killed. more >>

A Bible college in Sudan functioning under Franklin Graham's missionary ministry, Samaritan's Purse, was bombed Wednesday and the ministry alleges the attack was launched by the Sudanese air force.

The Heiban Bible College in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan was hit by eight bombs in the afternoon local time, on the first day of school, as the campus was full of students, teachers, and teacher's families, the ministry said. No one was injured. Two of the bombs landed in the compound and destroyed two buildings. There were also grass fires inside and outside the campus, workers said. The full extent of damages is yet to be determined.

"We have been working for years in Sudan," Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham said in a Wednesday statement. "Today our Bible school in Heiban in the Nuba Mountains was bombed by the Sudanese Air Force. No one was killed or hurt, but buildings were destroyed. Please pray for the safety of believers, and that God would intervene." more >>

Aid agencies are expressing concern that up to half a million refugees could be fleeing Sudan into South Sudan in the coming months if Khartoum does not extend humanitarian agencies access to its people in need.

A combination of wide-scale food shortages and conflict are pushing Sudanese populations living in the southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan areas across the border and into the newly established, but equally volatile, Republic of South Sudan.

An estimated 80,000 people have already fled Sudan, and Ramiro Lopes da Silva, Executive Director of the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP), suggested Monday that up to 500,000 Sundance citizens could end up fleeing south in a "worst-case scenario" outcome. more >>

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Police this week beat and arrested a church leader in Khartoum, sources told Compass.

Evangelist James Kat of the Evangelical Church of Sudan was arrested on Tuesday morning (Jan. 17), with officers beating him as they took him to a North Division police station, the sources said. He was released on bail the same day.

Police detained Kat, who lives at the church site, apparently because he was using the place as his home. more >>

President Barack Obama declared the government of South Sudan eligible to receive defense assistance from the United States after more than 3,000 people were killed in a major ethnic clash in that country amid rising tension with the government in Khartoum.

A day after Obama made the announcement, officials in eastern Jonglei State’s Pibor County said Saturday that over 3,000 members of the Murle tribe were killed in last week’s revenge attack by the Luo Nuer ethnic group, according to the Sudan Tribune.

The ethnic unrest could make the largely animist and Christian South Sudan more vulnerable against the Arab-Muslim-dominated North Sudan, from which it seceded last year. South Sudan lacks an air defense system and has had alleged air strikes into its territories by the North. more >>

As many as 150 children between six months and seven years of age are searching for their parents following violence in South Sudan that forced thousands of families to flee from their homes into the surrounding woods.

The Red Cross believes many of these children’s parents were killed in the attacks.

Last week, the Lou Nuer ethnic group reportedly stormed the town of Pibor, home to many members of the Murle ethnic group. Fighting between the two groups has escalated since the country gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. more >>