Bishops condemn leaders’ failure to build peace in South Sudan

‘Poverty is widespread. Our children still walk long distances to find a school or a clinic. Our farmers labour hard and still go hungry. This is a reality we must not hide.’

South Sudan’s Catholic bishops criticised the government’s failure to advance reconciliation despite assurances from the president and opposition that they will implement peace agreements.

“Have we not suffered enough from the deadly guns and senseless killings in our past bitter experiences? Have we not seen too often how violence has silenced the hopes of our people and crippled peace and development?” asked the Archbishop of Juba Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla in a statement after the bishops’ meeting on 7-11 July.

The statement listed aerial bombardments and shelling, armed ambushes, military confrontations, restrictions on civic spaces and the media and deadly clashes in cantonment sites as threats to the nation’s fragile peace.

The bishops said this was the result of the failure to implement security arrangements according to the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. They demanded immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access to all conflict zones, including establishment of protected corridors for aid delivery and tax exemptions for faith-based and humanitarian organisations.

Despite the instability and harsh economic conditions, Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio voiced hope that the world’s youngest country could still fulfil its promise of freedom a it marked its fourteenth independence day on 9 July.

Bishop Kussala told The Tablet that “wounds of conflict” still scar the land, particularly in areas like Tombura-Yambio, where violence, fear, and displacement persist, while the economy “remains strained”.

“Poverty is widespread. Our children still walk long distances to find a school or a clinic. Our farmers labour hard and still go hungry. This is a reality we must not hide,” he said, but insisted there was still cause for optimism.

“We are a nation of immense natural wealth, youthful energy, and spiritual strength. If peace holds and integrity governs, South Sudan can rise from the dust and feed her people, educate her youth, and heal her sick,” he said.

The bishop said “quiet heroes” had emerged from the country’s instability: faith communities, women, youth and elders building peace and dignity through personal conversion and collective responsibility.

Source: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/bishops-condemn-leaders-failure-to-build-peace-in-south-sudan/