Congregants of the Church of Christ in the Thiba Al Hamyida area of Khartoum stood by helplessly as Sudanese government officials destroyed their church building.
A church member told CNN that the government came in during Sunday mass and said they would be destroying the building. About 70 security personnel, some armed with guns and tear gas, used a bulldozer to destroy the building.
“They wanted to beat us or throw tear gas on us,” the church member said.
Reverend Kwa Shamal told the Morning Star News that government officials made it clear they were to not ask questions about why they were destroying the church. The government also gave no compensation to the church for the destruction of their building.
The pastor said the church’s congregation will meet in a tent this Sunday.
In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim says her newborn daughter is physically handicapped because she was forced to give birth with her legs shackled to a wall.
Ibrahim, who is currently seeking refuge inside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, gave her first interview after being released from her incarceration on charges of apostasy and adultery.
Ibrahim said that she was shackled with chains, not cuffs, and that her legs were forced together by the chains. The guards would not release the chains so that she could open her legs for the birth and her daughter’s legs were injured during the birth.
“I couldn’t open my legs so the women had to lift me off the table,” Ibrahim told the Guardian. “I wasn’t lying on the table.”
Ibrahim said it wasn’t clear yet if the child will need help walking as she grows older because of the injuries.
Sudan is forcing Ibrahim to stay in the country claiming she forged her papers to leave. Ibrahim told the Guardian that she has a document from South Sudan because that is where her husband is from and that is proper under international law. The family has visas to enter the United States when she is able to leave the country.
Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman who had been facing the death penalty on charges that she converted from Islam because her father was a Muslim, is reportedly in hiding at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum while she and her family attempt to leave the country.
Ibrahim had been arrested attempting to leave the country a day after her death sentence was overturned because Sudanese officials say she was using her Christian name on travel documents rather than her Islamic name and had documents from South Sudan rather than Sudan.
Ibrahim was reportedly released on the charges related to her attempt to leave the country on the grounds that she not leave Sudan.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department says it’s entirely up to the Sudanese government to say when Ibrahim can leave the country. Marie Harf said that the State Department confirmed Ibrahim has all the correct documents to leave Sudan according to international law.
A BBC report says that Ibrahim’s arrest was made by members of the National Intelligence and Security Service that was unhappy with Ibrahim’s release from her death sentence. The arrest was reportedly a way to send a message to the rest of the Sudanese government.