Security personnel have taken over the house of a pastor at a church compound in Khartoum North, claiming the land is owned by investors who want to build a shopping centre.

According to a source at the church, police and security personnel have deployed around the property while church members gathered inside the church praying.

“The government destroyed the youth house, and now they are taking out all the furniture from the senior pastor’s office,” the source said Wednesday. “Today we were crying and praying for the situation, I think they are progressing toward the church itself.”

“Today all the church members gathered in the church they will sleep the night at Bahri church and tomorrow they strike,” said the same source.

The police were accompanied by investors who claimed to have a legal right to the land based on an agreement signed by some church members. The building belongs to one of the oldest established Protestant churches in Khartoum.

A photo of Christian women protesting at the church shows one holding a sign saying, “No to fear, no to surrender. The people of the church stand against investment.”

Most members of the church are Sudanese nationals, not South Sudanese. Several Catholic and Protestant church buildings in the greater Khartoum area have been destroyed or confiscated by authorities since South Sudan’s independence in 2011.