The Catholic community in Sudan is overwhelmed, as is everyone, by the dramatic situation. At the end of June, the Episcopal Conference of Sudan and South Sudan promoted a meeting to reflect on the issues of great urgency and drama.
“We are in a situation that is now desperate,” Father Biong Kwol Deng, of the diocese of El Obeid, Assistant Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Sudan and South Sudan, tells Fides Agency. “I,” says the priest, “at the moment I had to move to Juba (capital of South Sudan, ed.). Like many members of the Church, we had to leave the places where we were in Sudan because they have become too dangerous, but I am constantly receiving news. The latest a few days ago from a relative of mine who has been in Khartoum since the beginning of the war, and he tells me that by now there is not a corner of the country that is not affected by the conflict, there is fighting continuously and everywhere. At the moment, I’m honest, there is no hope because government sources have said they do not want to stop, even though there are many forces in the field pushing for an end to the fighting or at least for a truce’.
‘The Bishops’ Conference,’ Father Biong resumes, ‘has sent a pastoral letter that supports the urgency of opening a dialogue in Sudan and also addresses the many problems also present in South Sudan. Among these are the many refugees arriving from Sudan. Many are so-called ‘returnees’, that is, former citizens of South Sudan, who had left the country because of problems of extreme poverty, floods or conflict, and who are now forced to return. As a Church, we try to do some interventions specifically for them, both in Sudan and in South Sudan. At the moment the situation of the displaced is frightening, even in the Kordofan area (the vast area that stretches from the centre of the country to the edge of South Sudan, ed) there are many refugees and we try to bring relief. Everything is aggravated by the big rainy season, people need everything, water, food, medicine, everything is lacking, and Sudan, complicit with the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, seems to have been forgotten by the international community‘.
The Catholic community has shrunk because of the forced exoduses that have generated the greatest displacement crisis of the moment. “Unfortunately,” says Father Biong, “our presence is less now, the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) who were in the diocese of El Obeid left last month and with them the Sacred Heart sisters and the Comboni fathers. They moved to Kosti (south of Khartoum, ed) and are on their way to Juba.
In Sudan,’ the priest goes on to explain, ‘there are the Christians of the north, of Nubian origin, and the Christians of southern Sudan who remained in Sudan even after the independence of South Sudan (2011, ed). Both are in a difficult situation also because of the lack of aid from outside. Otherwise, it is possible to pray and gather for mass in safe and protected places where there are priests. Often the priests are alone, and when there are two of them together they have to work in very large areas’.
(LA) (Agenzia Fides 10/8/2024)
Cover photo (© UNHCR-Nicolo-Filippo-Rosso)
