'We are fed up': Winnipeg's South Sudanese community holds peace circle

Members of Winnipeg's South Sudanese community and its allies gathered in a peace circle Saturday as part of a renewed call to end the violence in their home country.

"For us women, we are fed up," said Rebecca Deng, who helped organize Saturday's event.

"Women and children suffer a lot."

Deng is known as a 'Lost Girl' and is one of thousands of former children who fled the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983 for refugee camps.She arrived in Winnipeg in 2005 with several other Lost Boys and Girls.

Deng returned home in July with other Winnipeg women to work on a women's peacebuilding trip, but it was halted after a clash between rebel forces left hundreds dead.

"There is so many conflicts," Deng said.

Dozens of women and men came out Saturday to sit in a circle led by women asking for peace back home.

An Indigenous elder said a prayer to Creator asking for help and sang a traditional song for the group.

Arek Manyang, 43, is worried about family she has in South Sudan and women in the country.

"We as women we want to voice our voice so that the whole world can hear our voice," she said.

"It affect us here."

Manyang has been in Winnipeg for 18 years but said the violence back home continues to affect her community here in Canada.  

"It (brings) a lot of destruction to the people," she said.

"The reason we're here is because of the civil war in our country. That's what brought us to Canada."

"We would like to see the peace in our country."