Let’s Have “intervention strategy” to End Violence: South Sudanese State Faith Leaders

The South Sudanese religious leaders emphasize the need for collective initiatives for lasting peace for the people of God in their region, saying, “We need to come together and address this issue although we have our individual initiatives.”

“We need to develop a collective approach to end violence for our people to live in peace,” they further say.

“Let us put aside our differences and work toward a united country,” the faith leaders say, and add, “It’s our conviction that our joint and sincere efforts will one day be rewarded with sustainable peace.”

On February 3, 27 people were reportedly killed in South Sudan’s Kajo-Keji County in Central Equatoria State in a violence conflict involving cattle herders and militia fighters. 

According to Reuters, the February 3 violence in Kajo-Keji County started after fighters from a rebel group killed six people from a herding community. The herders retaliated by killing 21 civilians in a nearby area. 

The victims included five children and a pregnant woman, Kajo-Keji County Commissioner, Phanuel Dumo, was quoted as saying. 

In their February 18 collective statement, the faith leaders lament killings, saying, “Our people are now hopeless because they are being killed, their properties looted for no just cause in their own country.”

“Our people are being killed and nothing is done by the people who are supposed to give protection to them,” they further lament, and continue, “When we listen to our people they are really traumatized as the situation continues to worsen and nothing is being done.”

The faith leaders in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State further say they find it regrettable that despite their interventions, “the conflict keeps increasing instead of decreasing.”

“We have talked to the President, the governors, and other top government officials but it seems the more we talk as Churches the more the conflict is increasing,” they lament.

The religious leaders call for joint efforts to help “our people because things are not going well”.

Meanwhile a Catholic Priest ministering in South Sudan's Yei Diocese has condemned the February 3 killings, saying, “What happened in Kajo-Keji was not supposed to happen if we really have faith in being the children of God.”

Fr. Tom Poru who was celebrating Holy Mass at Christ the King Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Yei said, “Whoever is doing something bad to someone is destroying his or her relationships with God and those around him.”

“We should love ourselves as brothers, sisters and neighbors even if all of us are not from the same tribe,” Fr. Poru said in his February 19 homily, adding, “All of us are created in the image of God and we need to be in peace with one another.”

The Catholic Priest who serves as Director of the Diocesan counseling center, Yei Diocese, continued, “God is telling us to stop taking away the life he gave someone because that life was given with the reason not to be taken away by the human being.” 

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He said the Church is standing with the families of the 27 people killed in Kajo-Keji county.

“As a church, we are standing with you the families of those who were killed because God wants us to be with one another when there is sorrow,” Fr. Poru said.

The South Sudanese Catholic Priest urged those affected by the killings to look to God for strength. 

“I am calling on the families of the deceased to be strong in faith despite what has happened,” he said, and added, “I know it will not be easy to forget such things easily but keep praying to God.”

Fr. Poru went on to call on the people of God in South Sudan to foster unity in their diversity, saying, “Despite the differences we have based on our tribes we need to live in peace.”

“God did not divide us but we are the ones dividing ourselves based on the tribal line,” Fr. Poru said.