---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 5:35 AM Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] Missionaries Remain in South Sudan Despite Attacks To: Group <[email protected]>
1. Catholic Missionaries Stay in South Sudan despite Attack on Foreign Aid Workers Catholic News Service (CNS) || By Bronwen Dachs || 30 August 2016 While most expatriate aid workers left South Sudan after a brutal attack on foreigners in the capital, a group of Catholic missionaries chose to stay. "We stayed because we are committed to the ordinary people who are suffering so much," La Sallian Christian Brother Bill Firman, director of Solidarity with South Sudan, said in an Aug. 29 telephone interview from Juba, the capital. "My colleagues and I believe this is a good place for religious to be," the Australian brother said, noting that "we know our continued presence encourages" local residents and "provides some hope." South Sudanese troops attacked aid workers in mid-July in a Juba hotel. According to an Associated Press report, more than 80 armed men "raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions" for nearly four hours. One woman was raped by 15 men. U.N. peacekeepers did not respond to repeated pleas for help. Four days after the attack Catholic Relief Services, the humanitarian aid and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement that the upsurge in violence in Juba had led it to evacuate its "non-essential international staff" from the capital. CRS "is supporting the work of Solidarity with South Sudan to help those affected by the current violence with food, water and shelter in churches and schools, where many have sought refuge," the July 15 statement from Baltimore said. A civil war that began December 2013 has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes in the northeast African country. In July, hundreds of people in Juba were killed in fighting that dashed hopes of a transitional government ending the conflict. Since then, sporadic fighting has rocked the north and east of the country. "None of our members were evacuated but many, probably most, expatriates were," Brother Firman said. "Many foreign aid workers are returning now, and most of CRS' staff came back fairly quickly." Solidarity with South Sudan is an international Catholic group of missionaries implementing teacher and health training, agriculture, trauma healing and pastoral programs in many parts of South Sudan, under the auspices of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference. "I don't see any of our people being excessively nervous, and we are living a normal life here," Brother Firman said. "But we are cautious, because we do live with uncertainty about the future and declining law and order." "Many people in Juba are very hungry," Brother Firman said, noting that "the collapse of South Sudan's economy" is a major concern. South Sudan has a "very complex political situation, with many militias," Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Joan Mumaw, Solidarity with South Sudan's development director in the U.S., said in an Aug. 27 telephone interview from Silver Spring, Maryland. "Violence has spread and everybody is armed," she said, noting that "young boys with no education and no formation for life are taken into the military." Solidarity with South Sudan, which has a network of 17 congregations in 14 countries, uses its local religious partners to distribute humanitarian aid "to people most in need" for aid organizations whose usual routes have been disrupted, she said. As the "only credible group left in the predominantly Christian country," the church, with its "strong ecumenical reach, has a chance of restoring peace" to South Sudan, Sister Mumaw said. "But it will be very difficult to do this until the militia is stopped from killing and raping," she said, noting a "new and complete lack of respect for human life." After a late-December attack on religious sisters at the Solidarity teacher training college in Yambio, the capital of South Sudan's Western Equatoria state, and subsequent sporadic violence in the area, some training staff from neighboring Kenya and Uganda were evacuated, Sister Mumaw said. "This leaves us with a shortage of staff in our capacity-building programs, and there is some feeling among local people that the international community has deserted them," she said. A primary school teacher who was among 50 graduates from the college last year has set up a makeshift school for about 300 children at a U.N. camp in Juba, Sister Mumaw said. "This young man recognized the need and has pulled together everyone with training that he could find to educate these children," she said. "The camp was built to house U.N. staff, not refugees, yet people fleeing violence have been taking shelter there for about two years." http://www.canaafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&; view=article&id=719:catholic-missionaries-stay-in-south- sudan-despite-attacks-on-foreign-aid-workers&catid=16: latestnews&Itemid=103&lang=en END1 2. What the Church in South Sudan is doing amid a humanitarian crisis By Matt Hadro Catholic News Agency Washington D.C., Aug 31, 2016 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid a civil war, a humanitarian crisis, and the threat of mass starvation, the Church in South Sudan is still working to bring Christ to a troubled country. After meeting with Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) noted that “the Church plays a key role, as always and everywhere, in the provision of humanitarian aid,” and that “the bishops I met with are just absolutely committed to living out Matthew 25, the vulnerable people and helping people as if they were Christ.” Smith, chair of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, just returned from a fact-finding human rights mission to South Sudan where he met with religious, humanitarian, and political leaders , including the Archbishop Lukudu, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk. South Sudan became an independent country in 2011 but it has been torn by a civil war since December 2013, between the state forces – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – and opposition forces, as well as sectarian conflict. A peace agreement was signed but it was broken by violence earlier this summer, which prompted the South Sudan Council of Churches to publicly condemn the violence and pray for peace. A ceasefire was then ordered by President Kiir and then-Vice President Machar in July. Machar, the former rebel leader, ended up fleeing the country. The scale of the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan is immense: similar to that of the Middle East with the Islamic State, Smith noted to CNA. There are an estimated 1.7 million people displaced within the country, more than 800,000 refugees, and almost 3 million people at risk of “life-threatening hunger,” according to congressional testimony by a USAID official earlier this year. Many are without food and medicine, Smith said. Almost 6 million people “are facing a severe hunger crisis” there, Catholic Relief Services reports. Archbishop Lukudu “described a loss of hope upon many people,” Smith said, and he related to Smith how “the great expectations from five years ago when they became independent have, for the time being, crashed and burned, although hope remains eternal.” “So he expressed grave concerns about the humanitarian crisis, the crisis of leadership,” Smith said. The bishops of the country have also been “scrambling to provide shelter” and “safe refuge” for the many refugees there, he added. Some of the top concerns that Smith said he addressed in his meetings with South Sudan's president and defense minister were atrocities such as rape inflicted upon civilians and missionaries by soldiers, as well as the recruitment of children as soldiers. South Sudan is also listed as a Tier 3 country for its human trafficking problem. Tier 3 countries, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, are among the “countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.” Recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan is “among the worst in the world” Smith said, with an estimated 16,000 child soldiers since the conflict intensified in December 2013. The special danger of child soldiers, he noted, is what violence does to a young person’s psyche, especially as they transition into adulthood. Ethnic violence and the victimization of aid workers by state and opposition soldiers are other grave problems in the country. Aid workers are especially at risk. There are 2,000 international and 18,000 South Sudanese aid workers in the country, and many are “beaten,” “killed,” or “stopped” from aid work by fighters, Smith said. There were more major attacks on aid workers in the South Sudan than in any other country in 2015, the group Humanitarian Outcomes has reported. Recently, amid the civil war, South Sudanese soldiers entered the Terrain compound in the capital city of Juba and attacked international aid workers. “A woman in my own district” who worked with an aid organization “was raped when the Terrain compound was raided,” Smith said. “A lot of foreign aid workers, U.S. and international workers were there. They killed a couple of people, and just beat people horribly, and they were South Sudanese soldiers,” he continued. Despite calls for help, United Nations peacekeeping forces just up the road did not come to the aid of the victims, Smith added. Incidents like that have been a recurring problem among UN forces who are supposed to protect the innocent but are not, he said. Smith noted in a statement that he got commitments from the president and defense minister that a “zero-tolerance policy” against “rape, sexual violence and human trafficking” by all soldiers in the conflict would be implemented. Although there have been money and supplies sent to the country, access remains the biggest obstacle to serving the more than 6 million citizens who need humanitarian assistance, Smith said. The geography of the region, the remoteness of certain areas of humanitarian need, and soldiers acting as obstacles to aid being delivered, have all combined to thwart the aid reaching the people who need it. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-the-church-in- south-sudan-is-doing-amid-a-humanitarian-crisis-53413/ END2 ______________________ John Ashworth [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile) +44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) Skype: jashworth1 PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. 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