11th February, 2015
Sudanese authorities have been keeping two Christian pastors in an unknown location since mid-December, with no official charges yet filed against them.
On 12th December, members of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) visited the family home of Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata, a leader of the Fellowship of University Christian Students and a leader of Khartoum North Evangelical Church, sources close to the detainees said.
Telahoon (also known as Telal) Rata was told to “report” to the local NISS office north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. “He went to the NISS office behind the airport at al-Mashtel the next day, and he has been detained ever since,” the sources, requesting anonymity, said.
Meanwhile, two pastors from the Sudan Church of Christ, a denomination whose members originate predominantly from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, were arrested by the NISS on 18th December.
The latest cases are representative of a much larger campaign by Sudan’s government to eradicate Christianity.
Rev Kuwa Shamal, (the head of a church committee) was taken from his home in the district of Bahri, north of Khartoum, while Rev. Hassan Abduraheem Kodi Taour (the church’s vice-moderator) was detained while at home in Omdurman, a city across the Nile, west of the capital.
Shamal was released three days later, but was required to continue to report daily to the NISS until this formal requirement was cancelled on 16th January.
Both Rata and Taour remain in custody in an unknown location, with no access for either family or lawyers.
Rev Rata’s parents were allowed to visit him only once, five days after his arrest, family said. They met with him in Khartoum’s al-Kober prison.
Since then they have tried four times to visit him again, but each time they were told to apply for permission to visit, only to be told a week later their request had been denied, confirmed the family.
