Church building demolished in Khartoum North, Sudan on July 8, 2025. (CSW)
JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – Authorities in Sudan have warned leaders of a church in Khartoum that their church building could be demolished at any time, sources said.
The director of planning of Jebel Aulia District, accompanied by an engineer from the land department, came to the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church site in the Mayo Angola area of southern Khartoum – which is under the Jebel Aulia District, though Jebel Aulia town is 25 miles south – on June 7 and informed leaders that their building could be demolished at any time, a source said.
The lands official gave a strong warning without setting a date for the demolition, saying only, “Be ready,” the source said.
Church leaders fear the government will provide no compensation for the demolition.
Authorities claimed without evidence that the church building is constructed on a road – which the church leaders deny – and that it is located on land not zoned for a religious building. Christians in Sudan have long complained that authorities refuse to designate lands for church buildings and use it as a pretext to bulldoze them.
The threat sparked objections on social media from Christians in Sudan, with many calling for prayer. The Sudan Council of Churches condemned the move and called for immediate action from the government to keep churches from being targeted for demolition.
The SPEC building in southern Khartoum’s Mayo Angola area was constructed in 1991, after the congregation’s previous building in another area was demolished in 1988.
Sudan is 93 percent Muslim, with adherents of ethnic traditional religion 4.3 percent of the population, while Christians constitute 2.3 percent, according to Joshua Project.
Authorities in Sudan on July 8, 2025 demolished a church complex in Khartoum North. With no prior warning, bulldozers and trucked accompanied by police and armed forces personnel arrived at the compound of the Pentecostal Church in the El-Haj Yousif area of East Nile District at noon and began demolishing the church building, sources told local media.
Officials initially gave no reason for demolishing the building, which included a worship hall and administrative offices, sources said.
The church, which belonged to the Sudan Pentecostal Church denomination (SPC), constructed the building in the early 1990s, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Christians called on the Sudan Council of Churches, an ecumenical body, to take notice of the religious freedom violation.
Officials reportedly did not ask for ownership papers of the church building before demolishing it. Authorities later told church officials the building was destroyed as part of a drive to remove “unregulated” buildings throughout Khartoum state, according to Christian support group Open Doors.
Sudan was ranked No. 4 among the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian in Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List (WWL), down from No. 5 the prior year. Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 of the WWL list for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in 2021.
The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.
In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.
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- Church building demolished in Khartoum North, Sudan on July 8, 2025. (CSW)
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