Evangelical groups urge Trump admin to take notice of severe persecution of Christians in Sudan

Several evangelical groups have written a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, calling on him to take notice of Christians who are suffering severe forms of persecution in Sudan.

The letter, sent to Tillerson on Thursday, highlighted the restrictions in freedom of worship that Christians face in Sudan, including the destruction of churches and the inability to build new ones.

"There is no possibility of the demolished churches being replaced since in July 2014, Sudan's Minister for Religious Guidance and Endowments announced that the government would no longer issue permits for the building of new churches, stating that existing churches were sufficient for the Christian population living in Sudan following the secession of South Sudan in 2011," the letter stated, as reported by The Christian Post.

"Since it is also illegal to assemble in public without permission from the government, the restrictions have the effect of preventing Sudanese Christians from congregating to worship," it continued.

The evangelical groups, including Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse and the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), also decried Sudan's apostasy law, which forbids Sudanese Muslims from converting to other religions.

The signatories of the letter pointed to the case of Meriam Ibrahim, who was charged with apostasy in 2014 and sentenced to death by hanging for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Ibrahim gave birth in prison without proper medical treatment and was only released after extensive international pressure.

The letter noted that despite Ibrahim's release, the Sudanese government continued to charge individuals with apostasy and expanded the law in 2015 to include Muslims whose beliefs and practices are inconsistent with the government's interpretation of Islam.

The evangelical groups further alleged that the Sudanese government restricts the activities of charitable and humanitarian groups that have religious affiliations.

The groups called on the international community to increase pressure on Sudan and urged the U.S. government to resist lifting sanctions until it makes several key changes, such as the discontinuation of the demolition of churches; guaranteeing freedom of assembly and freedom of expression and changing its apostasy law to comply with international laws regarding the freedom to change one's religion.

The Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC), which represents about 220,000 if the country's two million Christians, recently wrote an open letter to the government, decrying "the systematic violation of Christian religious freedoms," including the demolition of church buildings.

Apart from the demolition of churches, the letter, dated May 16, also highlighted other "hard conditions" that they have faced in the past few years, including confiscation of church properties, travel restrictions on senior church leaders and the government's failure to allocate land for new churches.

About two dozens churches have been designated for demolition, with the government claiming they violate designated purposes for these plots of land.