NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As the globe readies for Christmas, a Sudanese bishop is reiterating his call for “silencing of guns” in his country, where 21 months of war have caused a terrible humanitarian crisis.
Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo of the Episcopal Church in Sudan, a province of the Anglican Communion, said Christians in Sudan are preparing to observe Christmas despite the war, with residents in relatively peaceful areas expected to welcome refugees.
“In the relatively peaceful states and areas, Christmas will be as usual, and (celebrations) will increase in number because of IDPs,” the archbishop told Religion News Service from Port Sudan, using the acronym for internally displaced persons. “In the war areas, Christmas will mainly be (held) indoors, just in case there are bombings.”
The primate has lived in Port Sudan since April 2023, when the fighting between Sudan Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces forced him out of his seat at the All Saints Cathedral in the capital, Khartoum.
The war is raging in densely populated cities and towns with little regard for civilian safety as the two rival militaries vie for control of the country, which they wrested from an interim civilian government last year.
Days into the conflict, RSF had seized the All Saints Cathedral, the seat of the 67-year-old archbishop, converted it into a command center and later turned the church’s compound into a graveyard. On that day, Kondo, his family and other church leaders were inside the cathedral preparing for Sunday service.
Kondo said that for the second year, the majority of Sudanese will observe Christmas as displaced persons, as refugees or needing aid while living in miserable circumstances. Many have no food or are homeless.
“On this great occasion in which we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, … I repeat my appeal of the last year to the two warring parties … to consider putting the guns beyond use and silence them for peace as a matter of urgency,” Kondo said in a Christmas message.
He warned that continuing the war would destroy the nation such that there will be no country called Sudan or people to be ruled.
“Enough is enough to the suffering of the innocent people. Enough is enough to death,” he said in the message.
He called for the Sudanese people to have faith that peace will be restored in Sudan and pleaded with the generals to see the suffering of the people and stop the war. “As we celebrate Christmas at this exceptional circumstances, let us continue to have faith in God … Despite the continued crisis and suffering, we thank God for his faithfulness, believing that he will intervene at his own right time,” he said.
At least 61,000 people have died in the war, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, although other agencies have estimated deaths as high as 150,000. The United Nations says 12 million people — nearly half of the population — are displaced and 25 million are in need of humanitarian aid in what is now becoming a forgotten crisis.
In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday (Dec. 19), Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described the situation in Sudan as a crisis of staggering scale and cruelty.
In November, Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, the president of Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement that the humanitarian consequence for the civilians in Sudan has gone beyond toleration and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible.
