Church leaders from across Sudan are calling on Christians throughout the world to pray for elections taking place this week.

The elections, the country’s first in 24 years, got underway yesterday and will run until tomorrow.

The World Evangelical Alliance said the elections were crucial to the fulfilment of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed in 2005 between the predominantly Islamic North and the Christian and Animist South, bringing an end to civil war that first began in 1955.

The build up to the elections has been marred by allegations of vote rigging by the Northern Government and continued unrest in the Darfur region. This has resulted in many opposition parties withdrawing from the election in protest and the European Union has removed its election monitors from Darfur due to safety concerns, raising concerns that the elections will not be free and fair.

Christians in the South have taken up arms to protect their freedom to worship and to ensure they protect their identity as African Christians in the midst of attempts to impose an Islamic regime in the South by the Northern Government.

Salva Kiir, President of Southern Sudan, recently announced that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which has led the fight for freedom since 1955, is in favour of an independent Sudan. Southern Sudan is expected to vote in an independence referendum in January 2011 and many analysts expect the South to vote to secede.

Bishop Elias Taban, of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sudan, and The President of Sudan Evangelical Alliance [ SEA ] said: “As Church Leaders in the South, we are calling on evangelicals throughout the world to commit to praying for our nation.

"We have spent many years fighting for our right to freedom of worship and to protect us from the spread of Islam and now we need the prayers of the world to help us in these elections.”

He said people in the South were tired of war but willing to return to conflict if it meant freedom.

He said: "The people of the South value freedom greater than peace and there is a willingness to secure that freedom, even if it means returning to war. We have been telling our people that prayer needs to be our weapon but we also need the prayers of those around the world to help us win this battle.”