Over half of those displaced in Sudan itself are children under the age of 18 years, with reports from the UN describing them as having "endured more than a year of separation, human rights violations, trauma, violence, and lack of access to basic services".

In April of this year, the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference raised concerns that "the international community has forgotten the Sudan crisis."

Read More

The deadlock has pushed Sudan into being a "forgotten" conflict.

Sudan's reality

If this were a film, its script would be criticised for overusing every dramatic device.

Looting, rape, executions, and bombings. The horrors of a dirty war are compounded by families driven into exile, legions of starving children, and a cholera epidemic amidst torrential downpours.

Yet, this is the reality of Sudan after 17 months of war.

The United States estimates that the conflict has killed more than 150,000 civilians.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 11 million people have been displaced within the country, a figure exacerbated by flooding and famine.

Hunger plagues 25 million Sudanese, more than half the population, while rival armies hinder humanitarian aid.

The United Nations has called it "one of the worst humanitarian crises" of our time.

Humanitarian help needed

In the face of international indifference, humanitarian organisations have called for help and action to "put Sudan back on track."

"The international community must mobilise," UNICEF urged this month, arguing that there was "no excuse."

In France, the topic is rarely discussed.

"Sudan is not within our political geography, and it is more covered in Arab and Anglo-Saxon media," said Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher associated with the French Institute of International Relations.

"Humanitarians and journalists have limited access; Sudan is vast, and the fighting occurs on multiple fronts. It's extremely difficult to report on the situation."

Fratricidal conflict

The genesis of this war is a fratricidal conflict between General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the regular army, and General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemetti, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The former is supported by the old Islamist regime and Khartoum elites, while the latter comes from the Arab Janjaweed militias involved in the Darfur genocide two decades ago.

Together, the two generals overthrew the democratic transitional government established after the fall of Omar Al-Bashir's Islamist dictatorship in 2021.

However, their ambitions clashed, leading to war on April 15, 2023. Their rivalry has unleashed local militias, igniting local conflicts and ethnic tensions.

Initially, major powers failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

"No one imagined that this war would last," said Roland Marchal, a sociologist and researcher at CNRS, France's National Center for Scientific Research.

"For U.S. President Joe Biden, Africa has never been a priority. U.S. diplomatic responses have been inconsistent, while Europeans have remained passive, following suit but divided.

From the outset, the silence of China, Sudan's primary trading partner, and Russia has compounded limited the Western response to Sudan."

Regional influence

This gap has allowed other types of interventions.

The ambitions of the two rival generals are cemented by support from regional actors attracted by the strategic importance of a country located between the Sahel and the Red Sea.

"The situation became particularly complex with the rivalries among nations of the Arabian Peninsula," continues the expert.

By providing additional resources without facing any sanctions, these nations have allowed the war to persist.

Their rhetoric and calls for de-escalation did not reflect the reality on the ground, further complicating efforts to understand this conflict and delaying any resolution."

While Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, and recently Iran supported government forces, General Hemetti has received crucial backing from the United Arab Emirates while also establishing ties with Russia through gold smuggling and the Wagner Group.

"With the involvement of Russians and Iranians alongside the regular army, an alliance is emerging that could reflect international fractures and complicate matters even further," Marchal explained.

Russia, for its part, is eyeing a naval base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, raising concerns within the Western bloc. For now, the entangled rival coalitions hinder any resolution to the war.

"Both sides will continue fighting as long as they have the means, thanks to their allies," Vircoulon said.

Arms trade

To fuel the fighting, the arms trade is king.

"A constant flow of weapons is sustaining the conflict," warned Amnesty International.

Despite an embargo, arms are being delivered to Sudan, particularly Darfur, from China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Amidst growing chaos, mediation attempts are underway. Since August 14, negotiations have been held in Geneva, initiated by the United States.

However, General Al-Burhan, who leads the army, refuses to sit across from his enemy. Nevertheless, he has allowed the opening of the Chadian border post at Adré, and 15 trucks have recently crossed to deliver humanitarian aid to Darfur.

In Sudan's powder keg, the fighting continues, with shockwaves fueling regional instability. According to Thierry Vircoulon,

"It's a fight to the death for power," a fight that is tearing Sudan apart.

• First reported in La Croix International
• Vanessa Dougnac is a journalist for La Croix International

"The international community cannot stand by as this crisis spirals out of control, as the noose of this conflict tightens its stranglehold on the civilian population," she told journalists at U.N. Headquarters in New York.

War and starvation

For more than a year, the Sudanese army and the rival Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in fierce battles.

The war has brought Sudan - already one of the world's poorest countries - to an utter state of catastrophe.

And as always with war, the most vulnerable and poorest suffer the most.

According to the U.N. approximately 18 million Sudanese are experiencing severe hunger - with over five million people on the brink of famine!

U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami said:

"We have just six weeks before the lean season sets in, when food becomes less available and more expensive."

And Nkweta-Salami added that with two more life-threatening deadlines coming quickly,

These are the rainy season, which makes it more difficult to reach desperate people; and the end of the planting season.

"The people of Sudan are in the path of a perfect storm that is growing more lethal by the day".

To escape the war, and its subsequent famine, over 9 million Sudanese have been forcibly displaced - the largest number of displaced people in the world.

Many of them cross over into neighboring countries like South Sudan - the poorest country on earth!

Sudan Relief Fund

Several years ago, an 80-year-old nun spoke to me very favorably about her personal knowledge of the Sudan Relief Fund.

And since then, I have been keeping informed and contributing to their wonderful life-saving efforts.

They are funding remarkable work, done by remarkable people like Dr. Tom Catena

On a recent visit to Sudan and South Sudan, Sudan Relief Fund's senior vice president Matt Smith sadly reported this:

"To put the crisis in perspective, families are risking their lives to come to a desperately poor country with no resources to help them, because it's preferable to being in the crossfire of Sudan's violent war.

"In the truest sense, they have no other choice". Please kindly make a donation.

The independent research organisation International Crisis Group is urging the United Nations and the United States to urgently mediate a truce.

"All should support a U.N.-led initiative to negotiate evacuation corridors for the suffering population in El Fasher and the surrounding camps for the displaced".

This is where a major military battle is unfolding.

They must "insist on immediate cross-border access for U.N. aid agencies into all areas of Sudan to stave off famine."

Aid alert

Maryknoll - the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America - has prepared an action alert for us. Please kindly complete and send it.

The world's Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council declared the following:

"Since there are so many people prostrate with hunger in the world, this sacred council urges all, both individuals and governments, to remember the aphorism of the Fathers:

" ‘Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him, you have killed him.' "

• First published in the Clarion Herald
• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist.

The current conflict is instead an acute symptom of a crisis that has plagued the country for decades.

The people of Sudan have been suffering for far too long from political turmoil and economic instability.

The escalating humanitarian needs have left many Sudanese in "survival mode".

Last year alone, humanitarian needs reached their highest levels in a decade, with violent conflict and food insecurity among the many challenges people have been facing, while significant flooding hinted at the country's vulnerability to rapidly changing climate patterns.

The situation was further worsened by the surge in fighting between armed groups in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which displaced more than 3 million people, almost 2.5 million in Darfur alone.

Meanwhile, Sudan also hosted more than one million refugees from neighbours such as South Sudan and Ethiopia, who themselves fled violence only to find themselves stuck in another conflict further affecting their ability to cope with their escape from misery and death.

Shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel

Before the current conflict, the alarm had already been raised about the critical needs of people in West Darfur, and emphasising the urgency of scaling up the humanitarian response to the already fragile healthcare system.

Now, we have witnessed first-hand the collapse of the health system and fast-growing levels of medical and humanitarian need across the country, placing great numbers of people in a life-threatening situation.

The United Nations estimates a 57 per cent increase in needs since December 2022.

Since 15 April, people in Khartoum and other states have suffered due to heavy fighting, airstrikes and mass looting.

Another wave of displacement of 1.4 million civilians is being reported as newly displaced, with women and children particularly affected.

The current violence has led to shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel, causing prices to surge and making it increasingly difficult for people to access medical care at a time when they need it most.

In Khartoum, El Geneina, Zalingei and other cities and towns where heavy fighting continues, people remain trapped, while hundreds of thousands have been fleeing to safer areas of the country or across borders.

Despite immense obstacles, agencies like MSF remain determined to support the people of Sudan to the best of our ability, providing critical healthcare to those in desperate need.

Our teams are currently active in 10 states in Sudan, involved in various activities, such as treating war-wounded individuals in Khartoum and North Darfur; providing healthcare and water and sanitation services to refugees, displaced people, and local communities in Al-Gedaref and Al-Jazeera states; and donating medical supplies to healthcare facilities across Sudan.

Concerted attacks on healthcare facilities

However, there has been a pattern of attacks on healthcare facilities and disregard for civilian lives that has made it increasingly difficult to deliver vital healthcare services during this critical time.

For instance, in Nyala, south Darfur, we were forced to suspend activities after one of our compounds and warehouses were violently looted on 16 April.

In Khartoum, another warehouse was also looted and occupied, with medical supplies, fuel and vehicles stolen.

Fridges were unplugged and medicines left exposed and, on the floor, meaning they can no longer be used.

On 26 April, the El Geneina Teaching Hospital (where MSF managed the pediatric and nutrition departments) was also looted, with parts of the hospital damaged or destroyed.

The hospital remains closed following the attack.

The theft of supplies and vehicles, harassment of medical personnel, and the proximity of violence to healthcare facilities and infrastructure collectively impede the efforts of medical and humanitarian workers in responding effectively to the dire situation.

These attacks are not isolated incidents.

Rather, they are indicative of a broader pattern where warring parties show a disregard for civilian lives, infrastructure, and healthcare facilities.

This trend poses a serious threat to the provision of essential healthcare services and exacerbates the already challenging conditions the affected population faces.

Administrative and logistical challenges are also impeding the medical activities of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Moving supplies from one part of Sudan to another can be extremely difficult.

Similarly, although MSF was able to bring emergency teams into Sudan during the first weeks of the conflict, obtaining permission for them to travel to project locations or securing visas for additional staff has been challenging.

How can we possibly continue carrying out our activities without an acceptable level of protection for our staff and for the people unable to reach medical facilities due to constant threats and obtaining a level of accessibility of our supplies and teams to move and deliver aid?

We cannot stand by as people are put at risk

From our humanitarian experience in conflict zones, we know the scale of danger that conflict poses to civilians who cannot or choose not to evacuate, including medical staff who remain to provide care to the sick and wounded.

Parties to the conflict must take all necessary measures to protect civilians from harm and ensure that those who are sick, wounded, or in dire need of medical support have access to healthcare facilities.

As I pen my closing words, I can't help but wonder how many lives that should have been spared are being lost at this very moment.

In the face of ongoing conflict and attacks on healthcare in various locations, it is imperative to ensure the safety of medical personnel and health facilities to ensure effective healthcare delivery.

This entails enabling safe passage for ambulances and individuals seeking medical assistance and facilitating access and rapid and unimpeded movement for humanitarian workers, organizations, and supplies to go where they are needed.

Too many lives are hanging in the balance, and we cannot stand by as people are put at risk. It is vital that civilians affected by the fighting are afforded access to emergency healthcare.

• Stephen Cornish is General Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Geneva, Switzerland. Republished from La Croix International.

The current conflict, which is less than a month old, has already claimed at least 528 people and wounded 4,599, the health ministry reports.

There's no running water in the capital, Khartoum. The same applies to other big cities. Vital infrastructure is shattered. There's no electricity. Food and water are in short supply.

While churches and church property have been destroyed, this is not an ideological or religious conflict, The Tablet reports.

"All citizens from Muslim and minority Christian communities are equally affected. Lay people, priests and religious are unable to leave their houses. Masses in churches have been stopped, although communal prayers continue in some houses."

Since 15 April, fighting between Sudanese Army Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has gripped the country, triggering fears of a humanitarian crisis.

As fighting intensifies, people are either hiding or joining refugees streaming from Sudan's broken, dangerous cities.

The UN says about 75,000 have been displaced by the fighting in Khartoum and the states of Blue Nile, North Kordofan, as well as the western region of Darfur.

Suffering and destruction

The people of Sudan are suffering and yearning for peace, says South Sudanese Catholic Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mula.

To preserve Sudan's unity and not further people's suffering "we call for an end to the fighting and a return to dialogue," Mula said in a statement from the Catholic Conference of Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan (SSSCBC).

The Church is joining "her voice with the rest of people in seeking peace so that the two warring parties stop fighting and dialogue," added Fr Peter Suleiman, SSSCBC Secretary General.

"It happens that a lot of infrastructure has been destroyed, and these are historical buildings that give meaning to the country, especially the barracks and the presidential palaces; the symbols of a country destroyed. These will cause a lot of energy to rebuild."

Lucky escapes

A concern for churches follows reports that two rockets demolished a priest's house and damaged the Cathedral of Mary Queen of Africa in the Sudanese Catholic Diocese of El Obeid last month.

Days earlier, armed men also targeted the Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum and used guns to break into cars, Sudanese Anglican church officials say.

No one was hurt in either incident.

Source

• The Tablet
• CISA

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is being built some 15 km (9 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, has become a major source of discord between the three countries.

"I invite all parties involved to continue on the path of dialogue so that the eternal river will continue to be a source of life, which unites and does not divide, which nurtures friendship, prosperity and fraternity and not enmity, misunderstanding and conflict," the pontiff said. Read more

The Associated Press reports that a member of Sudan's sovereign council announced Tuesday that transitional authorities and rebel groups from Darfur have agreed that those charged by the ICC for atrocities in Darfur should be prosecuted.

The ICC opened an investigation into the abuses committed by the Sudanese government in 2005. Bashir's government was accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur beginning in 2002. It's been estimated that over as 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur. Read more

Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu says the the Church has encouraged the people of the Nuba Mountains during decades of war with the government in Khartoum.

"Bishop Macram gave hope to the people. He gave them courage to continue to fight for their freedom, to fight for their rights, their dignity and their humanity," Hilu says. Read more

The Catholic Church is one group trying to help alleviate suffering.

In the grounds of the Cathedral of St. Mary in Wau, for example, almost 10,000 internally displaced people continue to find refuge. Read more

He is going to help coordinate the Caritas response to the worsening situation.

"I was in the country last year to bolster Caritas' humanitarian response to the existing emergency, and what I saw was people in desperate need."

"What we're seeing now is a humanitarian catastrophe. We are acting now to prevent more people dying of hunger," says Mr Mitchell, Senior Humanitarian Programmes Coordinator."

The Wellington-based aid worker was in the country in August last year to assist Caritas South Sudan in the design and development of a programme providing emergency supplies and water to thousands of people displaced by the ongoing civil war.

The programme that was set up in 2016 is now being expanded in response to the famine declared in South Sudan's northern Unity State and severe food shortages across the country.

Food and water are being distributed to those facing starvation.

According to the UN, the famine is affecting more than 100,000 people in Unity State.

There are fears it will spread to a further 5 million across the country who are already struggling with a scarcity of food and quickly approaching a similar level of crisis.

"Due to the escalation of fighting, aid agencies have been forced out, leaving communities without any access to food," says Mr Mitchell.

"We are in regular contact with the local Caritas agency, and they say security is a huge problem because of armed gangs."

"Caritas has a nationwide network of Church leaders, priests and community leaders to deliver food to these communities, but we could do more if the situation was stable."

Serious drought following one of the strongest El Niño events on record is also contributing to the growing threat of famine in Somalia, and emergencies in south-eastern Ethiopia and northern and eastern Kenya, where Caritas is responding with relief supplies.

Read full press release

Image: caritas.org

Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic missionary from Amsterdam, New York, is the only doctor at the 435-bed Mother of Mercy Hospital nestled in the Nuba Mountains in the far south of Sudan.

For that matter, he's the only doctor permanently based in the Nuba Mountains for a population of more than half a million people.

Just about every day, the Sudanese government drops bombs or shells on civilians in the Nuba Mountains, part of a scorched-earth strategy to defeat an armed rebellion here.

The United States and other major powers have averted their eyes, so it is left to "Dr. Tom," as he is universally known here, to pry out shrapnel from women's flesh and amputate limbs of children, even as he also delivers babies and removes appendixes.

He does all this off the electrical grid, without running water, a telephone, or so much as an X-ray machine — while under constant threat of bombing, for Sudan has dropped 11 bombs on his hospital grounds.

The first time, Dr. Tom sheltered, terrified, in a newly dug pit for an outhouse, but the hospital is now surrounded by foxholes in which patients and the staff crouch when military aircraft approach.

"We're in a place where the government is not trying to help us," he says. "It's trying to kill us."

Given the shortage of resources, Dr. Tom relies disproportionately on makeshift treatments from decades ago.

"This is a Civil War-era treatment," he said, pointing to a man with a broken leg, which he was treating with a method known as Buck's traction, using a bag of sand as a weight.

"Sometimes these actually work," Dr. Tom said. "You use what you have." Continue reading

Source & Image

• Crux

He sits in a migrant detention centre in Zawya, Libya, surrounded by hundreds of fellow asylum seekers who nearly died this week at sea.

They survived only after being intercepted, detained and brought back to shore by Libyan coastguards, ending a week in which they went round in circles, starving and utterly lost.

But despite their horror stories, Abdallah, 21, says the journey that his fellow inmates barely withstood - and that killed more than 450 others this week - is his only option.

"I cannot go back to my country," says Abdallah, who is from Darfur, in Sudan. He left for what is now South Sudan in 2006, after he says his village was destroyed in the Darfur war, his father died, and his sisters raped.

But in South Sudan, another war later broke out. So he made his way through the Sahara, a journey that he says killed his brother and cousin, to Libya.

And there last year, he was witness to his third civil war in a decade - a war that still drags on, its frontline just a few miles from the camp at Zawya.

"There is a war in my country, there's no security, no equality, no freedom," Abdallah says. "But if I stay here, it's just like my country. There is no security, there is violence. When you work, they take your money."

He worked in a soap shop, and saved up to pay local smugglers for the boat to Europe. But just as he hoped to complete the payment, he was robbed, and then arrested.

The recounting of his ordeal brings out first the tears, and then a conclusion: "I need to go to Europe." Continue reading

Source and Image:

• The Guardian

Pope Francis praised Mrs Ibrahim for her steadfast witness to Christ, in refusing to renounce her faith, despite facing a death sentence for apostasy against Islam.

The Pontiff spent 30 minutes with Ibrahim, her husband Daniel Wani and their two small children.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, told journalists that the encounter in the Pope's residence was marked by "affection" and "great serenity and joy".

They had "a beautiful conversation", during which the Pope thanked Ibrahim for "her steadfast witness of faith," Fr Lombardi said.

Ms Ibrahim thanked the Pope for the Church's prayers and support during her plight, he added.

The Vatican spokesman said the meeting was a sign of the Pope's "closeness, solidarity and presence with all those who suffer for their faith".

Italy's foreign ministry led negotiations with Khartoum for her to be allowed to leave Sudan.

She arrived in Rome on July 24 aboard an Italian government plane accompanied by her family and Italy's deputy foreign minister, Lapo Pistelli.

Among those organisations which helped with her exit from Sudan was the Italian human rights NGO Italians For Darfur.

Although brought up as a Christian by her Orthodox mother, a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law argues that she is still a Muslim since her father was a Muslim.

A Sudanese court ruled that she had committed apostasy when she married her American husband in 2011.

When she refused to deny her faith in court, she was sentenced to a flogging and death for the crime of "adultery".

During her imprisonment, Ms Ibrahim was forced to give birth to a child while chained to a prison table.

After being released following an appeal, Ms Ibrahim was further detained when trying to leave Khartoum with her family.

Authorities claimed there were problems with travel documents.

Ms Ibrahim planned to travel to New York with her family after a few days in Rome.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Irish Times
• Image: Independent

On June 24, an appeals court overturned Ms Ibrahim's death sentence and she was freed from prison.

But Ms Ibrahim and her family were apprehended at Khartoum Airport and detained, reportedly over issues with travel documents.

Her husband had told media they were trying to get to the United States.

Ms Ibrahim, who had a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother, had been convicted of apostasy and adultery after marrying a Christian man.

She was sentenced to be flogged and hanged.

Ms Ibrahim gave birth to her second child while in prison.

Sudan had come under intense international pressure to have her released.

Continue reading

Meriam Ibrahim would be "freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be undertaken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice", said Abdullah Alazreg.

But Mrs Ibrahim's lawyer, Mohanned Mustapha, told Al Jazeera that the final decision rested with an appeals court.

This was also the position taken in a foreign ministry clarification.

Mr Mustapha said Mr Alazreg's statement was an attempt to take the heat out of the international coverage of Ms Ibrahim's plight.

It was not so much a genuine reflection of what might happen, the lawyer said.

Ms Ibrahim gave birth to a girl last week in prison, her second child.

The 27-year-old was raised as an Orthodox Christian by her Christian mother.

But a Sudanese judge ruled last month that she should be regarded as Muslim because that had been her father's faith.

Her father abandoned her family when she was a child.

Ms Ibrahim was convicted of adultery and apostasy for marrying a Christian.

She was sentenced to hang, under the Islamic law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death.

Her husband is Daniel Wani, who is a United States citizen.

The court also sentenced her to 100 lashes before she is executed.

The court previously said Ms Ibrahim would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.

Her case has sparked international outrage and there has been growing pressure on Sudan's government to have her sentence overturned.

An Amnesty International petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures and more than 600,000 people added their name to a separate petition on change.org.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron called Ms Ibrahim's treatment "barbaric" and said it had no place in the modern world.

Her case has sparked debate in the UK as to whether the British government should cut off aid to Sudan.

Sources

• Al Jazeera
• The Guardian
• BBC
• Image: The Telegraph

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was last month sentenced to death after refusing to renounce her faith.

Mrs Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian by her mother, but her absent father was Muslim.

The Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif, Khartoum, ruled that she was a Muslim.

Under Sharia law, her marriage to a Christian was invalid, so she could be accused of apostasy and adultery, the court decided.

Lawyers have lodged an appeal against her conviction.

She will receive 100 lashes before she is executed.

The baby girl is Mrs Ibrahim's second child.

Continue reading

Reports said many Christian women and children in Northern Sudan are separated from their families and endure increased persecution from an increasing Mulslim population.

The Barnabas Fund, an international aid agency, said it has already helped about 5,000 Christians leave the country.

The Christians will be taken to South Sudan, a smaller nation formed in 2011.

"We launched this as major global initiative, and have had such a tremendous response from the Christian community," Julian Dobbs, a bishop and honorary director for the Barnabas Fund, told FoxNews.com.

"The situation for Christians who have remained behind has proven to create hardships for them, especially for women and children."

The Barnabas Fund's airlifting project began in August 2012, but only recently has the organization secured funds for a second phase.

Sources

Fox News

Christian News

Christian Today

Image: Barnabas Fund/Fox News

The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom.

"Extremists target religious minorities and dissenters from majority religious communities for violence, including physical assaults and even murder," she said.

"Authoritarian governments also repress religious freedom through intricate webs of discriminatory rules, arbitrary requirements and draconian edicts."

In its latest report, the commission lists 15 countries of particular concern: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

All of these nations, it says, severely restrict independent religious activity and harass individuals and groups for religious activity or beliefs.

Examples include sectarian violence against minority Christians and Muslims in Burma, repression of non-state religious groups in China, and Iran's imprisonment of Christians on account of their faith.

In both Pakistan and Nigeria, the report says, religious extremism and impunity have factored into unprecedented levels of violence that threaten the long-term viability of both nations.

A second tier of countries is named, where there are also serious and troubling violations of religious liberty. These countries are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia.

The report also highlights the status of religious liberty in other countries that do not fall into either of the two tiers. These nations and regions include: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ethiopia, Turkey, Venezuela and the entirety of Western Europe.

Some signs of hope were seen. The report noted that Turkey is "moving in a positive direction with regard to religious freedom".

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Image: Religious Freedom Coalition

Bashir's rhetoric and the attitude of the United Nations has Caritas Internationalis warning that Sudan and South Sudan are just a step away from the brink of full-scale war.

Caritas is urging the Sudanese leaders to find a way to achieve peace.

In a statement yesterday, Caritas warned of possible dire humanitarian consequences for both Sudan and South Sudan unless there is a pull back from further military action.

Peace can be achieved only by returning to the negotiating table and fully implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, said Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Michel Roy.

"Both sides must exercise restraint. They have a duty to all their people and must ensure their safety. This includes refraining from inflammatory language that incites violence against minorities."

The Archbishop of Juba, in South Sudan, Paulino Lukudu Lora, is also extremely concerned at what's happening and is appealing to the international community to help demarcate the border.

"This is an economic conflict for the control of oil. South Sudan is ready to reach an agreement with Sudan on oil."

Lora says the attitude of the United Nations is very disappointing. He is accusing the organisation of making premature judgements about the situation without knowing the reality.

Lora says that it is particularly important to understand the geography of the region, and in particular understand exactly where Heglig is, is it in South Sudan or Sudan?

He is calling on international representatives to demarcate the boundary between the two countries.

Over 500,000 South Sudanese live in Sudan. Relations at a community level between the predominately Muslim Sudanese and the Christian South Sudanese remain good.

"Caritas Internationalis stands in solidarity with the people of Sudan and South Sudan. We are committed to supporting the efforts of the Church at providing humanitarian assistance and fostering peace between the nations," said Roy.

Sources

• Fides
• Caritas Internationalis
• Vatican Radio
• Image: GBM News

Referring to spreading violence in different regions in central and eastern Sudan, and newly created South Sudan, the bishops' statement urges the international community to intervene to stop the fighting.