A Christian school in Sudan was closed by authorities who conducted their third raid on the school in two months on October 24th, according to Morning Star News.
Over 1,000 students are enrolled in the Evangelical Basic School in Al Jazirah, whose future was rendered uncertain by the officials.
The school was pioneered by American Mission in 1901, and is run by Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church.
EBC was also raided on October 4th and September 5th. Staff members who tried to resist government action were jailed for four days, including headmaster Rev. Samuel Suliman and Rev. Zakaria Ismail who is the pastor of the church affiliated with the school.
They were released after paying a bail of about 30,000 Sudanese Pounds ($5,972).
Several reports of Christian persecution have emerged from Sudan after the partition of the nation and formation of South Sudan in July 2011.
In April 2013, the Sudanese government ceased to grant new licenses to build churches in the country.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has promised to implement a strict version of sharia law and give precedence to Islamic culture and the Arabic language only.
Government officials have bulldozed Christian worship centers in Sudan and expelled Christians from the country after the secession of South Sudan.
Open Doors World Watch List 2016 ranked Sudan eighth among 50 countries which score high in Christian persecution.
In June 2015, a group of young women were arrested by Sudan's Sharia police for dressing 'indecently'. The girls were wearing trousers and dresses which the police said exposed their arms. One of the girls was sentenced to 40 lashes, but the court dropped the charges following an international outcry.
In 2013, Meriam Ibrahim was arrested for marrying a Christian man. At that time she was pregnant with her second child. Her father was a Muslim and her mother a Christian. Her father had left her family when she was 6 years old, but Sudanese court deemed Ibrahim's marriage to a Christian man as adultery because her father was a Muslim. She was given a death sentence apart from 100 lashes. While in prison, she was asked to recant her faith multiple times, but she refused to change her faith. She was later released from prison and given asylum in the United States.
"I put my life at risk for the women of Sudan and for Christians live under difficult circumstances, persecuted and treated harshly. There are many Meriams in Sudan and throughout the world," she said.
