Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Fides Service)- Educate to peace to facilitate the return of refugees to their own country. This is the objective of a programme started by the Jesuit Refugee Service JRS, working in refugee camps in southern Sudan and northern Uganda among thousands of Sudanese who fled civil war which ended at the beginning of this year with peace agreement signed between the government of Khartoum and Sudan Peoples Liberation Army SPLA. Now the war is over and returning refugees face a difficult situation from the material and spiritual point of view.
“The aim of the programme of education to peace is to encourage integration of returnees in their original community” says Yaba Dario, an educator who hails from Olikwi in southern Sudan, who is part of the programme which has been extended thanks to the recruitment of more local personnel. Formation of educators started in April this year.
The necessity of education to peace is underlined the diffidence and divergences which exist between displaced persons in Sudan and Sudanese who took refuge in northern Uganda. These tensions often exploded with violence particularly in and around the southern Sudan towns of Kajokeji, Nimule and Lobone. For the displaced persons who remained in Sudan returnees are people who did not join the fight to liberate Sudan, whereas for the repatriates people who did not leave Sudan were the cause of their exile. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 11/5/2005 righe 24 parole 268)
