A Sudanese Christian family living in Uganda lives in fear after receiving death threats from Islamic extremists from Sudan and Somalia.
Safaa Abdallah Yusif, who fled her native Sudan for Uganda in 2016 due to conflict and religious persecution, said in a phone call from Kampala on Tuesday (19 November) that she received a text message from an anonymous number threatening to kill her family.
“You are an infidel because you have left Islam. Your blood will be shed,” the message, written in Arabic, read.
Yusif has often shared his faith with Muslims in the country. She said a Muslim once called her and got angry while they were discussing the Quran, saying in Sudanese Arabic, “I wish I had burnt my car in Sudan before so I could get rid of you and get some rest.”
Muslims from Somalia are also threatening her. Yousif, who once taught discipleship classes to new converts, said Somali Muslims who had come to faith in Christ had been kidnapped and tortured by co-religionists from Somalia and Sudan.
“He was sent back to warn us to close the church and cancel discipleship classes,” she said. “He said, ‘If you don’t stop preaching and close down the church, they’ll kill you because you’re well known to them.'”
Yousif said he has received death threats five times since 2020. Before last week’s threat, he said he had received threats from Islamic extremists a month earlier.
The mother of a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl said her family’s lives were in great danger as she worried that Islamic extremists were monitoring their movements. Late last week, my daughter panicked when someone tried to open the window in the room where she was sleeping.
“Since that day, I haven’t been able to sleep well at night,” Yusif said. “The girl was scared and that upset me. This move showed that we were being seriously monitored by extremist Muslims who wanted to kidnap and kill us.”
The family has no choice but to leave the area and look for a safer place. They have been relocated to their current area due to previous threats.
Her husband was also attacked in October 2019 by four suspected Somali attackers, who beat him with a blunt object and stabbed him in the head, according to a Kampala police report. Yousif also reported threats of harm to police in 2021.
She said she is fasting and praying that God “give us peace because this is too much for us.”
“My situation is dangerous, but I just put the Lord in front of me,” Yusif said. “I have to do something, but I don’t know what. I would appreciate it if there were any people or ministries who wanted to provide psychological and social support who could step in and save my family from this worsening situation.”
According to the Joshua Project, Sudan is 93% Muslim, with 4.3% of the population practicing traditional ethnic religions and 2.3% Christians.
According to mainstream Islamic jurisprudence, the death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law in Somalia. Somalia’s Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab, allied with al-Qaeda, adheres to this teaching.
Somalia ranks second on Christian advocacy group Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries most difficult to become a Christian. According to the US State Department, the constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the spread of other religions. The law also requires that the principles of Sharia (Islamic law) be followed without exception in its application to non-Muslims.
The threats against Yusif’s family in Uganda were the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda documented by Morning Star News.
Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up only 12% of Uganda’s population and are concentrated in the eastern region of the country.
