THE son of an Anglican bishop is believed to be the only Christian pastor in Tawila, once a small market town in North Darfur and now hosting more refugees than most European capitals.
The Revd Daramali Ismael Gabriel Abudigin, son of the Bishop of El-Obeid, leads a two-hour church service every Sunday, according to a World Council of Churches (WCC) report published last month. He arrived in the town from El-Fasher, which fell to Rapid Support Forces in October after a siege of more than 500 days (News, 21 November 2025).
In February, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence, and enforced disappearances perpetrated in the attacks showed “hallmarks of genocide”.
Many of the refugees are in camps at Tawila, whose population has swelled by more than 700,000, the UN reports. Between 250 and 300 arrive every day.
Mr Abudigin arrived with a group of Christians after bomb, gun, and drone attacks forced his church to close. He was the last priest remaining in El Fasher, the WCC reports. In 2025, a Roman Catholic priest, Fr Luka Jomo, was killed in the town by a stray bullet. Mr Abudigin’s church became a shelter for Christians of various denominations.
At Tawila, he now cares for 117 families: between 500 and 700 people. “We are living in peace, but it’s difficult to get food or a place to stay,” he told the WCC. “I am the only priest here, and I can feel the struggles of the people.”
The Sunday service is held under a large lalob tree, which symbolises peace, hope, and resilience in Sudan and South Sudan. The trees are “common venues for peace discussions among the Sudanese communities”, the WCC reports.
A UN report published last month gives statistics about life in Tawila, where 70 per cent of displaced households have required healthcare over the past three months, and only half of them have been able to get treatment.
”Malnutrition, cholera, and dengue fever continue to spread across overcrowded locations, while shortages of clean water and sanitation compound humanitarian needs,” the report says. “Nearly all families are unable to meet their basic daily requirements.”
Across Sudan, almost 20 million people — about 40 per cent of the population — face “acute hunger”, and about 135,000 already live in “catastrophic conditions marked by extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition, and heightened risk of death”.
More than 800,000 children are deemed to be at risk of severe malnutrition this year. UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, described last month how children arrived, “too weak to cry”, at “overstretched facilities”.
In April, the UK helped to convene the third International Sudan Conference, in Berlin (News, 21 April). Analysis from the International Crisis Group said that officials had failed to agree on a joint communiqué, leaving the co-hosts to release a separate statement.
The summit “displayed the outside divisions helping tear Sudan apart”, it said: the “Quad” leading on peacemaking — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates — represented the countries with the greatest influence over the warring parties. “Egypt and Saudi Arabia back the army, which they view as Sudan’s state authority, while the Emirates are widely understood (despite Emirati denials) to back the RSF. . . [T]he group is too at odds to even agree on a new statement about the war.”
Mr Abudigin told the WCC: “The people have suffered a lot. So, we need to end this war.”