South Sudan: Local Church Responds to Refugees, Peace Efforts
The Catholic Church in South Sudan responds to the needs of refugees entering the country from Sudan while calling for greater efforts to maintain the peace process in South Sudan.
The Catholic Church in South Sudan responds to the needs of refugees entering the country from Sudan while calling for greater efforts to maintain the peace process in South Sudan.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 131 other International, National, and Local NGO’s and Faith Based Organizations in asking President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, and Secretary Blinken to Extend and Redesignate TPS for South Sudan. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) can save lives by preventing immigration enforcement from deporting South Sudanese people back to extremely dangerous conditions. South Sudan currently sees extreme violence, including targeted killings and Gender Based Violence. Only 41% of the population has access to clean water and 11% to sanitation facilities. Malaria, HIV/AIDS, COVID, Ebola, polio, and cholera are leading causes of death.
The goal of the visit is to reinvigorate the peace process and to give the people of South Sudan hope for peace.
The Africa Faith and Justice Network organized an open sign on letter to the pope about ongoing challenges on the African continent prior to the papal visit to DCR and South Sudan in July.
As half a million people in South Sudan face their third straight year of extreme flooding that the UN says is fueled by climate change, Maryknoll lay missioner Gabe Hurrish writes in his newsletter about the growing hunger and violence in the world’s youngest nation.
The future of the young nation’s peace agreement, signed last year to end a five-year civil war, is unclear.
Amid a humanitarian catastrophe the parties to the internecine conflict in South Sudan surprised many international observers when they signed a permanent ceasefire agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on June 27. Whether this ceasefire will hold is anyone’s guess. What we do know is the humanitarian crisis continues.
Pope Francis designated the First Friday of Lent, February 23, to be a day of prayer and fasting for peace for South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Famine and a refugee crisis grow while violent conflict continues.
For the first time in six years, the United Nations has declared that a situation of famine exists on the continent of Africa.
Some South Sudanese believe the long journey to peace and reconciliation has already begun.
The following reflection was written in early April by Br. Bill Firman, an Australian De La Salle brother and friend of Maryknoll who works in Juba.
Kelly Kundrat, an intern with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, attended the third annual Civil Society Forum on Sudan and South Sudan, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2014. Following is her report from this gathering.
The following article was published in the March-April 2014 NewsNotes.
The Catholic bishops of Sudan and South Sudan met from January 21-31, 2014 in Juba, and issued this joint pastoral exhortation on their countries’ recent violent conflict.
The following article, contributed by Marie Dennis, explains how church leaders responded to the September 27 Cooperation Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan; the agreement covers a number of areas of vital importance, including oil, security arrangements, economic affairs, the status of nationals of the other states, a framework for cooperation on central banking, borders, trade, and other matters.