People profile

Sudanese Arabs originated in the Khartoum region of Sudan many centuries ago. The first “pure” Arabs were called “Bedouins.” They were tribal nomads from Saudi Arabia, famous for their love of poetry and war. The Sudanese are a tribe who branched off of the Bedouins. Today, the estimated 21 million Sudanese Arabs remain firm Muslims and include city dwellers, rural farmers, and pastoral nomads living along the river Nile in Sudan and Egypt.

Rigid codes of honor, loyalty, hostility and hospitality are among those values that have remained strong throughout the centuries.

Strategic prayer

  • Sudanese Arabs live in a country engulfed by war, terror and destruction. After the 2019 ouster of the Omar al Bashir dictatorship, a transitional military-civilian government was formed, but this brief hope for progress was undone by subsequent military coups. Now, civil war rages between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and over 10 million Sudanese are displaced and subjected to atrocities by both sides. Also famine – especially in Darfur – reaches out to claim more lives.

  • Pray that the legacy of oppressive, militaristic rule in Sudan might be ended in Jesus’ name. Pray for a government that will oversee a flourishing of the country – most importantly through the rapid spread of the gospel.

  • Pray for Sudanese Arab family leaders to have dreams of the righteous and victorious Christ, leading entire clans to the cross.