SUDAN (ACN News): Calls for a fresh drive to stop a guerilla commander terrorising South Sudan have come from a senior bishop who fears renewed violence may derail progress in a region preparing for independence.
Reporting on an upsurge of violence by the Lords Resistance Army in Sudan’s far south-west, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio has issued an open letter pleading for renewed political pressure to bring LRA leader Joseph Kony to the negotiating table.
And in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Hiiboro said the threat of worse violence could drag neighbouring regions into the conflict, with devastating consequences for the fledgling government of what looks set to become Africa’s youngest country.
The LRA, notorious for the brutality of its crimes, has carried out a spate of killings and abductions in recent weeks, including the murder of a 37-year-old nun.
Bishop Hiiboro fears the violence could worsen as the LRA takes advantage of people’s increased vulnerability as they go out to cultivate their fields during the approaching rainy season.
He wrote: “The LRA problem in our communities will not be solved until Joseph Kony and the other senior leaders are made to leave the forest.”
“Each day that goes by without a solution to the problem of the LRA is another day of terror and pain for those of us living under constant threat of renewed attacks.”
Speaking to ACN on February 7, he said: “The threat of violence widening could stress any new government in South Sudan, ruining the resources of a young nation as it fights to protect its citizens and prevent others from being drawn into the struggle.”
Bishop Hiiboro underlined the impact of renewed violence thus far, adding: “Many of our children are still in the hands of the LRA. We do not know if they are alive or dead.
“Those who have managed to escape the LRA bear the physical and mental scars of what they have suffered and will never be the same again.”
The bishop stressed the fear sparked by renewed LRA activity including the killing of a religious sister from the local St Augustine Institute, who was killed on January 17.
She was ambushed while travelling in Dungo diocese, in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo where she was providing medical help to refugees from South Sudan.
Bishop Hiiboro said that from December 22-25 nine people died and seven were wounded in LRA attacks in Maridi, Ibba and Yambio counties, all in his diocese. Seventeen people were abducted.
Since then, attacks continued on February 5 when eight people were found mutilated and tortured to death in the region of Source Yubu.
Meanwhile, in North Sudan, Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok Kur of Khartoum has warned of increased threats to Christians in a region whose Islamic government is expected to be less tolerant to non-Muslims.
He reported on how large numbers of Christians and others were now leaving for the South.
He said that in his pastoral region of Kosti, Mass attendance was down from 1000 to barely 100.
