{"id":962,"date":"2014-01-31T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T07:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2014\/01\/31\/amecea-south-sudan-needs-urgen\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:41:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:41:06","slug":"amecea-south-sudan-needs-urgen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2014\/01\/31\/amecea-south-sudan-needs-urgen\/","title":{"rendered":"AMECEA: South Sudan Needs an Urgent Humanitarian Support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fr Ferdinand Lugonzo<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nThe Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern
\nAfrica is appealing to the AMECEA conferences, the Regional and International
\nCommunities for urgent humanitarian support to assist the citizens of South Sudan
\nwho are internal displaced because of violence in their country. <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThe call comes a few days after AMECEA delegation came
\nback from the solidarity visit to Juba, South Sudan that took place on 23 -25
\nJanuary 2014. The delegation consisted of Most Rev John Baptist Odama,
\nArchbishop of Gulu Archdiocese (Uganda); Most Rev Berhaneyesus Souraphiel,
\nArchbishop of Addis Ababa Archdiocese (Ethiopia), Rt Rev Phillip Anyolo, Bishop
\nof Homa Bay Diocese (Kenya) and Very Rev Fr Ferdinand Lugonzo, AMECEA Secretary
\nGeneral. During the visit, they delivered the message to the Bishops, and to
\nthe government of South sudan in which they appealed for a cessation of
\nhostilities.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nAccording to Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo, the Secretary General
\nof AMECEA, the experience in one of the camps they visited in Juba was very disheartening. He said that the internally
\ndisplaced people (IDP), majority of them being women and children, are living
\nunder very desperate condition in the camps and without access to basic social services.\n<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nFr. Lugonzo said that many of these people are sleeping
\noutside because tents are not sufficient; Worse still, there is meager supply
\nof water and medical services. \u201cIn this situation it is the women and children who
\nsuffer most. We need a collective response by all partners to assist them and the
\nentire community of South Sudan,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nDuring the visit, the delegation had a chance to meet the Minister
\nof Cabinet affairs of the Republic of South Sudan, Hon Dr Martin Elia Lomuro,
\nwho received them on behalf of the President, His Excellence Salva Kiir. They
\nappealed to the government of South Sudan to offer protection of all people, engage in cessation
\nof hostilities and provide security to some Church premises that is housing large
\nnumbers of internally displaced people.  <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nAccording to Fr. Lugonzo, some of the Church premises have been
\nattacked and priests have been forced run away. He made specific reference to
\nthe Diocese of Malakal, (Upper Nile in the capital of South Sudan), which is
\nsituated in an area that has been affected by the crisis. In this area, the
\nApostolic administrator of the Diocese of Malakal, Msgr. RokoTaban Musa, was
\nforced out of his residence and the Church premises was was subsequently
\nlooted. Fr. Lugonzo said, that from what they got there,  the attacks were not related with religious
\nfundamentalism, but rather tribal, while some of the perpetrators took advantage
\nof the chaos to loot even Church property. <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThe Secretary General said that
\nthis situation in South Sudan affects the entire AMECEA family and it is high
\ntime that the Church in AMECEA region think of practical ways of expressing
\nsolidarity with these people who are suffering. First, an appeal for
\nhumanitarian aid must be extended to all AMECEA countries and to all
\nhumanitarian organisations. He, therefore, made an appeal to the Episcopal
\nConferences in the AMECEA region to take the issue of South Sudan seriously in
\norder to help alleviate the situation.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nSecond, as AMECEA, there is need
\nto urgently strengthen the apostolate to the nomadic communities in South
\nSudan. \u201cA large population of the people in this great country are nomadic\u201d he
\nsaid adding that \u201cAMECEA should now strategize to find out how this apostolate
\nto the nomads can be enhanced.\u201d <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThird, is to strengthen the office
\nof Justice and Peace in South Sudan to locally be in the forefront in promoting
\ndialogue, peaceful co-existence and reconciliation among the rival groups. <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nOn the issue of people from South
\nSudan who have taken refuge in neighboring countries, Fr Lugonzo said that the Bishops
\nof South Sudan and Sudan made an appeal, through the AMECEA Secretariat, that the
\ndioceses in which these refugees are should make some plans so that they may
\ncontinue receiving pastoral care and services.  <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nSpeaking to the AMECEA delegates,
\nthe Bishops of South Sudan said  the
\ncrisis has become a wakeup call for the Church in South Sudan to play a
\nprophetic role in its mission while asking the people to participate in the
\nNational building activities. In addition, the bishops reiterated their call for
\nunconditional cease fire, humanitarian aid and pastoral support in order to
\nrestore peace in South Sudan. <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nMeanwhile<\/i><\/b>,
\nthe government of South Sudan released 7 of the 11 detainees that were taken
\ninto custody following the outbreak of clashes on December 15. The four
\nremained were still in custody in South Sudan, facing trial for attempting to
\ntopple President Salva Kiir.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThe seven who were released on
\nWednesday arrived in Kenya under the custody of President of Kenya His
\nExcellency Uhuru Kenyatta. The seven men appeared in apparent good health
\nduring a press conference at State House, Nairobi on Wednesday this week. <\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nWhile receiving them, President
\nKenyatta called on the parties to respect the signed ceasefire. “Let all
\nsides in the conflict silence their guns let those in the camps return
\nhome”, he said.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\nThe release of all the prisoners
\nhas been a key demand of the rebels.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSOURCE:
\nAMECEA Social Communications<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr Ferdinand Lugonzo The Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa is appealing to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}