Sudan’s bishop brings aid from Virginia to his war-torn homeland

An Anglican bishop from Harrisonburg regularly returns to his native Sudan to help his people during an ongoing civil war. WMRA’s Randi B. Hagi spoke with him and wrote this report.

Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail has several rules of thumb for traveling in the Nuba Mountains. Don’t drive with your headlights on at night. Smear something dark on the body of a white car. Watch for bomber planes that may follow the dust trails on dirt roads.

ANDUDU ELNAIL: When you travel, you never know what will happen.

Sudan was already in a humanitarian crisis before the current civil war broke out in April 2023. The Council on Foreign Relations reports that nine million people have been displaced since then and many areas of the country are on the brink of famine. And the war has paralyzed the work of many aid organizations in the country.

ELNAIL: Many have died and are still dying, and many have fled to the Nuba Mountains. … Thousands of people have migrated to the Nuba Mountains, so food supplies are difficult. People are starving. Especially those who come from other cities.

Elnail is no stranger to conflict. He first came to America in 2011 to seek medical treatment for an illness. While here, Elnail was warned by a chancellor of his diocese that he was being targeted by then-President Omar al-Bashir. (Al-Bashir ruled Sudan for 30 years. He remains on trial at the International Criminal Court for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.)

Elnail told me that he was granted asylum in the United States and that his family joined him four years later. He earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University. Mike Deaton, a member of the Church of the Incarnation, noticed the large Sudanese family at the service and began talking to Elnail about his life and his travels home.

MIKE DEATON: Even though he was the target of an assassination attempt, he went back.

Deaton and other American community members wanted to help Elnail overcome the many challenges his people faced, so they traveled with him to Sudan in 2020.

DEATON: He made it very clear that education was his number one priority. The schools had been destroyed – especially Grace Secondary School – destroyed by the Sudanese government. We went to see the rubble. We saw machine gun bullets everywhere… and Bishop Andudu said, “I want to rebuild this school.”

Elnail showed them how decades of unrest had shaped people’s lives.

ELNAIL: Because we lost a whole generation of education in the first war. That’s why education is so important and is a priority. … So we dug foxholes around the school. I showed Mike that if something happens, the children can run away if they can hide in these foxholes. So it was difficult, but we are determined – life must go on.

DEATON: In the classrooms of what is known as a primary school, that is, our elementary school, you sometimes see a 45-year-old woman, and that is because she belongs to the generation that was never able to go to school.

Together they founded a non-profit organization called Pax Dei for Nuba. They rebuilt a high school and paid teachers’ salaries. They funded peacemaking and mediation workshops that Elnail led for warring tribes. Elnail recently returned from a six-month trip where he saw how hungry people were in the Nuba Mountains after the war. Food shortages have been exacerbated by the many displaced people seeking refuge there. The World Food Program reports that more than half the country’s population is now facing famine.

ELNAIL: We don’t have the capacity to feed the people who are coming. People even come to their homes – literally – and we also have to give them what we can share with them. … The crops sesame and sorghum, as well as chickens and goats.

Deaton said that without Elnail’s expertise, her organization would not be able to bring aid to Sudan in a way that many others have not. They have sent more than $650,000 in humanitarian aid and funds for the local diocese over the past four years, about a third of which has been donated since the outbreak of the recent civil war.

DEATON: You fly to Juba, South Sudan… because if you had a Sudanese visa, the government would know he was coming and he would be targeted. … We drive across the border in a truck from a refugee camp. … He is known at all the checkpoints, and because he is from there and well known, he can get things done if he has the resources.

Aid leaders complain that this humanitarian crisis is not receiving any international attention. Elnail shares their grief.

ELNAIL: We want this news to be spread so that people know what is going on and so that they can support us or put pressure on the governments to make peace. If some of these strong countries try to mediate between them or give them instructions, then I think peace will come. But if we are left to ourselves, we will continue to kill each other for decades. It would also be very helpful if humanitarian aid could be given to the people. And the churches should pray for the situation in Sudan.

Pax Dei for Nuba is hosting a fundraiser featuring Sudanese food and live music on July 30 at A Bowl of Good in Harrisonburg.