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‘God have mercy on us’: Sudan’s Christians struggle to survive under siege
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FIRST ON FOX: Sudan’s two million Christians are among the hardest hit by the country’s two-year civil war, with Fox News Digital being told some are having to eat animal feed and even grass to survive.
Sudan is the fifth-worst country in the world for Christian persecution, according to Open Doors’ World Watch List. Open Doors is a faith-based nonprofit aiming to raise awareness of global persecution.
It is the world’s largest displacement — between 13 million and 15 million have been forced from their homes, and an estimated 150,000 have been killed since the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) started fighting in April 2023. The civil war’s roots lie in tensions following the 2019 ousting of President Omar al-Bashir.
Christians, an estimated 4% of Sudan’s population, suffer from a double whammy of desperation. Like the rest of Sudan’s people, they face chronic food shortages and the horror of war. But Christians are also allegedly singled out for discrimination and persecution by both sides in the conflict.
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A Sudanese man walks in the courtyard of a church in the Um Gulja former refugee camp in Sudan’s eastern Gedaref state on December 15, 2023. Many refugees and asylum seekers fleeing the current war in Khartoum and other areas across Sudan have been seeking refuge in Um Gulja, a refugee camp that was closed down some 20 years ago but with the latest war that broke up in Spring 2023 started receiving displaced people again. (Photo by EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images) (Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached a senior Sudanese church leader working with colleagues on the ground in the country and the region. Talking from an unidentified location and withholding his identity for his safety, he told Fox News Digital, «Christians are seen as an enemy for both warring parties, and even the political parties. Sudan is considered as a land of one religion and one race.»
He continued, «When even NGOs want to distribute food, the category of people who will receive this relief is controlled by government. So, government in these places doesn’t give it to minorities. Often Christians here have been told, ‘Unless you leave your Christianity, no food for you.’»
«Since Sudan’s civil war erupted more than two years ago, Christians have faced relentless persecution at the hands of both warring parties,« Mariam Wahba, research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. «More than 165 churches have been forced to close. In 2023, RSF fighters stormed Khartoum’s Anglican cathedral, assaulting civilians and converting it into a military base, while SAF airstrikes leveled the Al Ezba Baptist Church in Khartoum North. Both sides have also carried out arbitrary detentions, with SAF interrogating and beating dozens of Christians in 2024 and 2025.»
The Pentecostal church in Bahri was demolished by the government for re-zoning even though it was built 30 years ago.
«The RSF has been especially violent in Wad Madani (central Sudan), Wahba continued. «In December 2024, its fighters set fire to the Evangelical Church of Wad Madani, and later that month attacked the Sudanese Church of Christ in Al Jazirah State during a prayer service, wounding 14 worshippers. One militant reportedly vowed to ‘eliminate all Christians.’»
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«RSF militants have allegedly forced Christians to convert to Islam in exchange for aid and protection. It’s important to remember that the RSF is the latest incarnation of the Janjaweed militias, infamous for their campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur two decades ago. That legacy of terror is now being carried out again.»
«Together, these abuses have left Christians among the war’s most vulnerable victims,» Wahba concluded.
The Evangelical church in Omdurman after being bombed even though it was not in a combat zone or used by any warring forces. (Open Doors)
The Sudanese church leader Fox News Digital talked to this week believes the situation is especially bad for Christians in El Fasher, a city under siege by the RSF. «For a long time now they’re eating animal feed and grass. No wheat, no rice, nothing can get in. And unfortunately now, no medicine — if you have just the flu it can kill you. We don’t know what to do. We are just always asking God [to] have mercy on us.»
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, «Since the April 2023 outbreak of conflict in Sudan, we have witnessed significant backsliding in Sudan’s overall respect for fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom. This backsliding especially impacts Sudan’s marginalized ethnic and religious populations, including Christians.»
The spokesperson continued, «Sudan was a Country of Particular Concern under the former Bashir regime, and the United States is focused on preventing the return of Bashir-era loyalists and other violent extremists who might reimpose particularly severe violations of religious freedom.»
A predominantly Christian camp in north Sudan. (Open Doors)
«In order to safeguard U.S. interests, to include the protection of religious freedom in Sudan, U.S. efforts seek to limit negative Islamist influence in Sudan’s government and curtail Iran’s regional activities that have contributed to regional destabilization, conflict and civilian suffering.»
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Today in Sudan, there is desperation. The Sudanese church leader added, «For Christians, it’s forbidden even to pray in your home as a group in many places now. Logically there is no hope because it [Sudan] will become more radical. But I believe in God who can turn the curse to blessing. And we pray that the church continues to be like a light and salt in our country.»
christianity religion,africa,conflicts
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GOP rips FISA court for tapping ex-Biden ‘disinformation’ lawyer to advise on surveillance
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Republican lawmakers called it «insane» that the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appointed to a key advisory panel a lawyer with past ties to the Biden administration’s controversial Disinformation Governance Board.
Judges on the FISC appointed Jennifer Daskal this month to serve as an amicus curiae, meaning Daskal is now among a small group of lawyers designated to advise the secretive court, which approves warrants for federal authorities to surveil targets for foreign intelligence purposes. The GOP lawmakers say Daskal’s history with the disinformation board raises worries about her ability to discern whether warrants are appropriate.
«The same person who helped to build a board to censor American speech now advises judges on how to protect American liberties,» House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in a statement. «That’s ridiculous — and exactly why Congress must continue our oversight.»
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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, looks on during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., echoed Jordan’s concerns, saying Daskal’s appointment was «insane» and calling for reforms to the FISC.
Schmitt shared a video of himself on X questioning Daskal during a hearing about what he called the Biden administration’s «censorship enterprise,» referencing Daskal’s role in aiming to dispel what the administration viewed as inaccurate information about COVID-19 masks and vaccines and information about election security.
FISC proceedings are classified and «ex parte,» meaning a judge reviews the federal government’s warrant application and the target of the warrant has no awareness of the proceedings. A judge reviewing the application can, however, turn to an amicus curiae to present counterpoints to the government’s application, meaning Daskal is among a handful of lawyers who could be tapped to argue against allowing the government to wiretap a person’s phones or otherwise surveil them.
The logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seen at the Los Angeles Federal Building after a news conference to provide an update on the investigation into a May 18, 2025, bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on June 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the government has access to these powerful spy tools for foreign intelligence purposes, but it has sometimes, whether inadvertently or intentionally, improperly targeted U.S. citizens.
Building more guardrails into the legislation has long been a point of contention for privacy hawks. Republicans, in particular, became highly critical of the FISC after finding that the court approved the FBI’s warrant applications, which contained flimsy and inaccurate evidence, to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page beginning in 2016.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on Daskal’s appointment, that the «American people need to have confidence in the people tasked to serve as amici» before the FISC. Grassley pointed to a bill he introduced, the FISA Accountability Act, which would allow Congress to have a say in who is chosen as an amicus curiae.
Jordan and Grassley have been some of the most vocal proponents of reining in the federal government’s use of FISA after identifying instances in recent years of intelligence officials allegedly abusing their authority and infringing on U.S. citizens’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy. In the case of Page, DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz released a report in 2019 that identified more than a dozen «significant errors or omissions» across the FBI’s four warrant applications used to surveil the former Trump aide. Daskal, in her new role, could offer confidential, weighty legal arguments to a FISC judge that support or oppose intelligence officials’ requests to surveil someone.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is seen in the U.S. Capitol during votes related to the government shutdown on Thursday, October 16, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Daskal served as a top lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security when she helped launch the Disinformation Governance Board. Conservatives heavily criticized it, describing the board as a «Ministry of Truth» that sought to censor their viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment.
Daskal chartered the board, while Nina Jankowicz was named its executive director, an appointment that fueled Republicans’ fury over it after finding Jankowicz’ past social media posts that they said revealed she was too partisan. Jankowicz, for instance, cast doubt on the New York Post’s bombshell story in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which she said fit a pattern of Russian «information laundering.» Biden administration officials vehemently objected to the claims in the New York Post’s story about Joe Biden’s handling of Ukrainian foreign policy, though the authenticity of the laptop itself has been verified through court proceedings.
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Republicans put so much pressure on DHS about the board — calling it an «abuse of taxpayer dollars» and raising alarm that it painted policy disagreements over COVID-19, election security and immigration as mis- or dis- information — that it disbanded just a few months after its launch.
In Daskal’s hearing exchange with Schmitt, Daskal said «it’s not appropriate for the government to censor any points of view.» Daskal did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
fbi,judiciary,congress
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Russia urges Iran, ‘all parties’ in Middle East to show restraint amid US military buildup
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Russia warned Iran and «all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution» Thursday amid a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group are moving from the Caribbean toward the Middle East.
«Russia continues to develop relations with Iran, and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution, and we urge them to prioritize political and diplomatic means in resolving any problems,» Peskov said Thursday, according to Reuters.
«Right now, we are indeed seeing an unprecedented escalation of tensions in the region. But we still expect that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement,» he added.
WORLD’S LARGEST AIRCRAFT CARRIER HEADS TO MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN NUCLEAR TENSIONS SPIKE DRAMATICALLY
A F-18E fighter jet takes off from aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford as it sails during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise on Sept. 24, 2025, in the North Sea. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
The move of the USS Gerald R. Ford would place two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago.
Negotiations between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program advanced Tuesday toward what Tehran described as the beginning of a potential framework, but sharp public divisions between the two sides underscored how far apart they remain.
IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS
The USS Gerald R. Ford is heading toward the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalate and President Donald Trump demands full nuclear dismantlement. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the two sides reached a «general agreement on a number of guiding principles» and agreed to begin drafting text for a possible agreement, with plans to exchange drafts and schedule a third round of talks.
Yet Washington has publicly insisted that any agreement must result in the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program — including its enrichment capacity — along with limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and an end to its support for allied militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, is seen in the North Sea during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise in September 2025. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
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Those demands go well beyond temporary enrichment pauses or technical adjustments.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
iran,russia,military,nuclear proliferation,middle east,world
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