After decades of on-again, off-again civil war in Africa’s largest country, the long-awaited democratic process has yielded amazing fruit. More than 98 percent of Southern Sudanese voted for independence from the Islamic Arab North, which was committed to the Islamization of the Christian and animist South.
That the referendum was held at all is miraculous. Although Sudan has no history of democracy, 80 percent of Southern residents voted. It was reported that even a 115-year-old woman voted in a polling place in Juba, the capital city of the South.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, an International Criminal Court indicted war criminal, backed the final tally and said he wished to be the first to congratulate the new state. The move allows the 2 million internally displaced Southern Sudanese who dwell in squalid camps surrounding Khartoum, the capital city of the North, to return home. On July 9, Southern Sudan will formally become independent, barring a major return of violence.
In the years leading up to the referendum, al-Bashir had repeatedly broken the stipulations of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the brutal civil war. The war plunged oil-rich Southern Sudan into death, disease and destruction. The aggression killed an estimated 2 million. The Northern Sudanese sought to derail the South’s path to independence through attacks and exploitation of Southern tribal rivalries. For that reason, many international observers warned of mass killing or genocide over the referendum. Instead, the vote and aftermath have largely been peaceful, though tensions remain high.
Restoration Trickles into the South
Open Doors has long ministered to the needs of Christians in Southern Sudan. I look forward to returning there to fellowship with believers and visit Open Doors community development and other ministries that are restoring Southern Sudan’s devastated church and society. These efforts are badly needed, as war-torn infrastructure left an entire generation unschooled.
Open Doors’ Emmanuel Christian Training Centre (ECTC) plays a key role in grounding pastors in the Word of God. Beyond theological training, ECTC teaches an array of subjects, including farming, welding, plastering and brick-laying. The center also has a women and children’s ministry. Christians from a cross-section of society attend the school, breaking down the barrier of tribalism. ECTC trains church leaders from throughout Southern Sudan, working to bring peace and unity among students from different people groups that are often at war with each other.
Third-year ECTC student William shares a dorm room with men from a rival tribe, the Nuers. “[W]e are living a life of Christ,” said William, who is Dinka. Nuers killed six of his close relatives in a recent attack. “When I told my Nuer friends here at the ECTC that their tribe has attacked and killed some of my people, they cried with me and they are praying for me and the situation at home.”
While tribalism has divided Sudan for centuries, often with deadly consequences, the barriers fall in Christ. “We used to consider people according to allegations against their tribe,” William said. “But students at the ECTC have come to realize that this policy is a worldly way of thinking. We have been introduced to a new way of thinking at the ECTC. So we left those initial thoughts behind, and we are now living in the light of God.”
Christians Look Beyond Challenges
ECTC is sowing peace, but physical concerns abound for the new nation. Sudan lacks basic infrastructure, so word of secession may take months to disseminate. The news may trigger violence along historic tribal fault lines.
The 1,250-mile border between North and South must still be demarcated. On that border is Abyei, a region claimed by both North and South that contains oil and fertile soil. Several rival tribal militias are based there, each aiming for control: Arab nomadic Misseriya and the Ngok Dinka, who are sub-Saharan cattle herders. Many of the ingredients of the wider North-South war – the oil, the proxy forces, the historic rivalries — are concentrated in Abyei.
The North and South must now decide how to share abundant oil reserves of the South, where the border lies and who owns Abyei. These are vital issues, not only for peaceful transition to the South’s independence, but also for a positive relationship as sovereign nations. These questions could drag the North and South back into war.
Islamic Northern Sudan will likely become more fundamentalist. On Dec. 19, al-Bashir said, “If South Sudan secedes, we (in the North) will change the constitution. There will be no question of cultural or ethnic diversity. Sharia (strict Islamic law) will be the only source of the constitution, and Arabic the only official language.”
The Muslim North remains dedicated to Islamization, which will bring greater persecution of Christian minorities. This remains a primary concern for Northern Christians. Southern Christians do not take lightly the plight of their brothers in the North. We, too, must pray for Christians in Northern Sudan.
Local believers are rejoicing with the result of this watershed referendum. Although building a new country is a daunting task, Southern Sudanese Christians are cautiously optimistic. We must continue to stand with those who are suffering and strengthen the church.
We also must become informed. Most Americans have heard of Sudan but know little about it. Learn more on our website, www.OpenDoorsUSA.org, and spread the word. We can equip Southern Sudan’s church to minister to the vast sea of needs. In prayer we can engage the power of God to move mightily on behalf of Christians there. We must pray for lasting peace and that the Church is seen as a vital component of any peace.
Dr. Carl Moeller is president and CEO of Open Doors USA, the American arm of Open Doors International, a worldwide ministry which has supported and strengthened persecuted Christians in restricted countries since 1955.
