Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Juba (Agenzia Fides) – His Exc. Mgr. Akio Johnson Mutek, Bishop of Torit, in Southern Sudan, has announced that he has sent a delegation to mediate in the conflict between two communities in Magwe County, in the Eastern Equatoria State. In fact, the Ma'di and Acholi communities claim the ownership of the "Ame Junction" land. In past weeks, four people were killed in two separate accidents for the control of this territory.
According to reports by the Sudan Catholic Radio Network, Mgr. Mutek has recorded an audio message calling on the two communities to stop the hostilities and announced that he had sent a delegation of priests groped to resolve the issue peacefully. The Bishop of Torit urges people to return to their farms and said that the two communities have coexisted peacefully for decades, as evidenced by the number of mixed marriages.
Mgr. Mutek stresses that the Country has emerged from two decades of civil war that caused a huge number of victims, and so this is the time to mourn their loved ones who have died in the struggle of liberation in Southern Sudan, and not to initiate new conflicts.
Southern Sudan, whose independence was proclaimed on July 9, is crossed by a series of community conflicts (mostly related to land issues) and was also affected by the armed conflict in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, areas controlled by Sudan that are situated on the border with the new state. Previously, the Bishop Emeritus of Torit, His Exc. Mgr. Paride Taban, had launched an appeal for peace and reconciliation between the two communities (LM) (Agenzia Fides 28/10/2011)
