Catholic bishops urge South Sudan leaders to bury hatchet

South Sudanese Catholic Church officials have exhorted top politicians in the country to address "the real roots of the conflict" instead of making the ongoing civil war a personal affair between them.

A new political impasse cropped up in the world's youngest nation after its President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar had an inconclusive two-day discussion from Oct. 19 on national unity government formation.

After the high-level meeting, the leaders announced postponement of the government formation before the Nov. 12 deadline, saying that "any haste would lead to disaster."

Ravaged by a civil war since 2013, the government formation in South Sudan has been delayed since May due to disagreements on crucial issues such as the structure of the new army, comprising rebels and government forces.

Under the September 2018 peace agreement, combatants from all sides must be trained and deployed as part of a unified army of 83,000 troops which has been hampered by delays and paucity of funds.

"If we don't have a national army, police and security, how do you form the government? This morning, President Kiir and I met with the security chiefs and what we found is that even in three months we will not succeed," Machar said after the negotiations.

South Sudanese Catholic leaders have expressed deep concern about the situation in the country as the six-year old conflict has already claimed more than 3,80,000 lives and uprooted more than 4 million from their homes.

Spectrum of civil war

"We wonder why peace efforts focus on power-sharing between two or more individuals rather than on the root causes of the conflict affecting the population of Southern Sudan," said bishops of the Southern Sudan Catholic Church in a statement ^[1]on October 19.

The bishops divulged many blind spots in the discussions such as "issues of governance, violence, poverty, lack of basic services, corruption, national identity and the conflicts within communities."

South Sudan, inhabited by 12.5 million people, has a majority of Christians (60 percent), including 3 million Catholics and 2.5 million Protestants from the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

"The conflict must not be personalized between President Kiir, Machar and some other elite leaders. The people must be at the centre," the bishops said, fearing that "the violence of 2016 will be repeated" if the root causes of the conflict" are not sufficiently addressed.

The bishops also urged the two leaders to remember the act of love and humility of Pope Francis, who kissed their feet during their spiritual retreat in the Vatican last April. Three years ago, clashes between Kiir's troops and the rebels plunged the country into a civil war.

Republic of South Sudan sank into a civil war two years after its independence from Sudan in 2011, when Kiir, a Dinka, accused Machar, the then vice-president and a member of the Nuer ethnic group, of orchestrating a coup d'état.

References

1. ^{^} statement (millhillmissionaries.com)