Sudan Archbishop to Primates: do not abandon us

According to Episcopal News Service Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul called on the Anglican Communion “not to abandon the people of Sudan in this time of danger and uncertainty,”

Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul appealed to his fellow primates February 4 saying that the Church in Sudan needs “urgent support for the work of relief, rehabilitation and resettlement.”


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Inter-tribal fighting, the ongoing conflict in Darfur and renewed rebel atrocities by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are some of the concerns Deng highlighted in his address. He spoke about LRA rebels “mounting attacks on many unarmed villages … often with severe brutality including the severing of limbs with machetes and whole villages burnt down.”

Several parishes and villages in southern Sudan have fallen victim to the fresh wave of attacks by the LRA, a Ugandan rebel organization whose soldiers are prolonging a two-decades-long terrorist campaign gruesomely marked by widespread massacres and child abductions.

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Despite initial hopes for the success of the peace agreement, southern Sudanese leaders have been frustrated by the northern government’s refusal to live into the major terms of the agreement, including sharing of oil revenues and the drawing of fair borders.

The peace agreement set the date of 2011 for a special election in which southerners can determine whether to secede from the north or remain a unified country.

Deng also told the primates that suffering continues in the Darfur region of Sudan, where government-backed Arab militia, known as the janjaweed, continues to attack civilians and raid refugee camps. “No progress has been made towards peace and … there is a lack of willingness to negotiate,” said Deng, noting that the CPA is essential to achieving peace in Darfur.

Addressing the media February 4, Deng explained that there are four million Anglicans in Sudan and that the church is actively involved in education, healthcare, and relief and development work. “We are involved in the life of the common people — we are making peace and justice and reconciliation,” he said.

More news of the Primates meeting, their discussions on relief and development and other reports from today’s sessions here.

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