A civil war in Sudan is dragging on into a second year and local supporters are expanding their assistance for Sudanese Christians rebuilding their lives in Egypt and South Sudan.
In the biggest humanitarian emergency in the world today more than 11 million people have been displaced within the country and 3.1 million left for other countries, the United Nations says.
Meanwhile, Egypt in particular is struggling to accommodate an influx of 1.2 million Sudanese refugees from the conflict.
Melkite Greek Catholic priest Fr George Banna is among those forced to leave his home in Khartoum, the capital city, shortly after the power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and prominent militia group Rapid Support Forces exploded on 15 April 2023.
Now in Sydney with his wife Susie where they are visiting two of their adult children, Fr Banna told The Catholic Weekly how he had just finished celebrating the daily liturgy at Our Lady of Annunciation Melkite Catholic Church and was in his house next door when the competing forces began trading fire.
Today many of his former parishioners are struggling to make a life in Cairo, and Australian Sudanese Syrian Christians have helped them with funds for medication, rent assistance, basic furniture, food, and other bills partly through a partnership with the Melkite Catholic Church in Australia.
“I was at home with my wife and a man who was there to repair our TV,” Fr Banna explained.
“We could hear explosions; it just like in a movie, but it was the first time I had heard such things in real life.
“The man wanted to go home but I told him it was too dangerous. We were right in between the RSF headquarters and the presidential palace.
“He ended up staying with us in our house for nine days because it was too dangerous to go out, I couldn’t even walk the 50 metres to go into the church.
“At night we slept on the floor because we were worried about bullets going over our heads. The electricity cut out so we couldn’t use our phones.
“The next Saturday, the exchange of gunfire was very strong night and day, we didn’t sleep at all. We prayed to Our Lord and to St John, because it was his feast the next day, to lead us in what to do.”
On Sunday 23 April Fr Banna drove his wife and the repairman, plus two other people, to Kalakla, a relatively safe suburb at the time on the outskirts of Khartoum.
Driving through an active war zone, waving a white cloth under the gaze of snipers was distressing and they were stopped and questioned by the RSF a few times but eventually allowed to pass through.
Fr Banna said he had wished to stay in Khartoum out of a sense of responsibility for any parishioners who remained.
But his bishop ordered him to dedicate himself to the swelling numbers of traumatised faithful who had found refuge in Cairo instead.
Only then did he agree to go, beginning a longer journey taking 50 people in a bus from Kalakla across to Egypt.
Sudanese Syrians have been a minority group in Sudan, including Melkite Greek Catholics, since the early 1900s after fleeing from civil unrest and persecution in Syria.
George Abagi, the president of the Sudanese Syrian Christian Social Community in Australia, said the group has raised $100,000 to provide aid for almost 100 families in Cairo, most of them Fr Banna’s parishioners and is advocating for some to be allowed to come here.
He also wants to assist a group of religious sisters who escaped Sudan last year.
The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate sisters, now based in South Sudan, are raising funds for a health centre in the country’s east that would provide primary care, laboratory testing and pharmacy services for to 150 patients daily, addressing critical issues such as high infant mortality rates and the prevalence of infectious diseases.
“Through partnerships and affordable services, this project aims to significantly improve community health,” explains Abagi.
“They are also working on some projects to empower women to earn money by teaching them skills.
“The aim of the Sudanese Syrian Christian community here is to assist our brothers and sisters in Egypt and South Sudan and also bring the community together for our saints’ feast days and other special traditions.”
