Five years after the official end of the South Sudanese Civil War, one of the belligerents in the war attacked a military base.
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio pleaded, “To all those engaged in fighting, I raise my voice as a shepherd: Cease hostilities! Respect human life! Protect civilians!”
Some of the faithful are “forced to hide in the bushes without food, medicine, or shelter, exposed to the rains and dangers of disease,” he said. “Some of our beloved have been killed, many wounded, and countless others, especially the elderly, women, children, and the disabled, are in desperate conditions.”
He added:
As your bishop, I want you to know: you are not forgotten. The Church is with you, I am with you, and Christ Himself walks with you in this valley of tears. Even though your homes, schools, and health centers have been looted, and though you now sleep in the open sky, remember that you are still held in the shelter of God’s hands.