The World Council of Churches has joined with the South Sudan Council of Churches and All Africa Conference of Churches in condemning recent killings in South Sudan and calling for an end to violence there.
The move comes after at least 23 people were killed and 20 more injured in an attack on an Anglican church compound in South Sudan’s Anglican Diocese of Athooch, in Jonglei State, in late July, which also saw six children taken hostage. It just one of a string of recent incidents in ethnic violence in the nation.
Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, general secretary of the WCC, expressed his sorrow over the attacks and calls for the “human family” to “stand together to recommit to respecting and protecting one another, and to preventing such violence.”
“Killing children and innocents is against any principles of our faith and denies the very identity of being Christian.”
He said it was clear that “after years of insecurity and instability…violence is not the solution to the challenges in South Sudan” and called on those behind the attacks to desist from violence.
The All Africa Conference of Churches in a statement on 6th August called on all parties involved in South Sudan’s conflict to condemn all kinds of violence and for regional and international bodies – including the East African Community, Intergovernmental Authority for Development, African Union and United Nations Security Council – “to take this attack as an assault on world peace, and demand for the full implementation of the long-delayed peace agreement in South Sudan”.
A day earlier the South Sudan Council of Churches condemned the murder of three children in the capital Juba on 1st August.
“This is a barbaric, heinous and demonic act that cannot be tolerated,” reads the statement. “Children are to be loved, protected, nurtured, and cared for by the community and society; they are not to be take advantage of, neglected or abused.”