SOUTH SUDAN: Politicians should do more to start a peace dialogue in war-torn South Sudan.
Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of the South Sudanese diocese of Tambura-Yambio expressed this demand recently.
In his diocese, which is located in the border region of South Sudan, the population is forced to suffer attacks from rebels based in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“They abduct children, burn down houses and kill people.
Many people are fleeing into the towns. In my diocese there are many internal refugees,” Bishop Kussala said.
The LRA, which was established in Uganda in1987 under the leadership of Joseph Kony and has since largely been driven out of Uganda, operates today primarily in the border areas of South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
To improve the security situation in the region soldiers of the Ugandan and South Sudanese armies, the American contingent and the African Union Force had been stationed there, Bishop Kussala said.
“This military presence is not a solution,” he said.
“What’s more, the international community lacks the will to arrest the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony.
“The politicians believe in the military, but all these efforts have been to no avail.”
Bishop Kussala said the Church had an important role to play in the peace process because it was educating people in peace and reconciliation and was a “lobby” for peace.
It often acted through diplomatic channels to further the cause of peace, the bishop reported.
South Sudan, the majority of whose population adhered primarily to Christian and animist religions, became independent from the mainly Islamic northern part of the country on July 9, 2011.
Between 1983 and 2005 a civil war had raged, claiming more than two million lives and making many millions of people homeless.
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