Updated: 31 July 2026 16:59:21
Rebel militia abduct pastor and family members in Sudan
Source: Morning Star News
Members of a break-away group from the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) abducted a pastor and others in South Kordofan state, Sudan on July 23, his brother said.
The Rev. Yaqob Ibrahim Tia of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was abducted from his home in Heiban town along with his two sons, ages 17 and 20, a 15-year-old nephew and the brother of Catholic priest Fadi Ibrahim Tia, Fadi Ibrahim Tia said.
Fadi Ibrahim Tia, who is based in the area’s Nuba Mountains, said his brother, Daniel Ibrahim, was at the same house when he was abducted. The house is a short distance from Pastor Yaqob Ibrahim Tia’s church building. Fadi Ibrahim Tia is also the brother of SCOC Pastor Yaqob Ibrahim Tia.
The assailants have not demanded a ransom and appear to aim only to show their ability to destabilize the area, sources said. There have been no ransom demands in previous attacks and abductions in the past three months.
“There is a growing targeting against the church leaders in the area,” Fadi Ibrahim Tia told Morning Star News by phone.
Police have been notified of the kidnapping in the area, which was soon deserted before calm returned.
Family members were urging well-wishers and right groups to intervene to help release the abducted pastor and those with him.
Church leaders and institutions are increasingly becoming a target amid the growing conflict between break-away SPLA-N members and other militants in Heiban and other areas of the Nuba Mountains. On Friday (July 25) break-away SPLA-N militia shot and killed Episcopal Pastor Adel Idris Jongool in the Dabi administrative Unit of Heiban District.
The attack followed an attack in Heiban town on Thursday (July 23) that reportedly left an unknown number of Christians dead and other church leaders abducted. The attacks on Christians amid the armed conflict follow the killing on June 19 of a Catholic priest and one of his guards in Holy Cross parish in Kauda, South Kordofan by the same break-away militants. Another guard also was shot, survived and received hospital treatment.
The Nuba Mountains, an SPLA-N stronghold long battling Khartoum, has remained largely outside the military conflict that broke out in Sudan in April 2023, but a new frontline emerged there after the SPLA-N joined forces with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Armed factions in the Nuba Mountains have emerged that are fighting the SPLA-N, resulting in killing and displacement of civilians.
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.
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). 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.
