Christians arrested in fight over school

Christians arrested in fight over school

OMDURMAN, Sudan — Police in Omdurman, Sudan, arrested four Christians in February and accused them of destroying the sign board of a Muslim interest trying to take over their Christian school, sources said.

The Christians spent the night in jail and were released on bail for $1,682 on Feb. 21.

Police arrived at the Evangelical School of Sudan in Omdurman across the Nile from Khartoum on Feb. 20 at the behest of a Muslim businessman who recently claimed ownership of the school property at a complex of the beleaguered Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), church members said.

“These accusations are false and baseless,” said Anglo, a teacher of Christian education, after his release.

Amid a struggle by SPEC to remove government-imposed leadership of the beleaguered denomination, the arrests came after a Muslim identified only as Hassan approached school administrators and claimed he was the new headmaster of the school, now to be called Education Vision.

On Feb. 18, Muslims claiming ownership of the new school put up an Education Vision sign post. Hassan accused the four members of SPEC of destroying the sign post. They denied it.

The leadership of SPEC remains in the hands of government-appointed committee members even after a court ruled in November 2016 the appointments were illegal, sources said. (MS)