AFRICA/SOUTH SUDAN - Appeal of the World Council of Churches: "With the agreement signed, the real work starts now"

Juba (Agenzia Fides) - "The situation remains volatile until the truce actually takes effect on the ground" says a note by the World Council of Churches (WCC) sent to Fides Agency, on the peace agreement signed by President Salva Kiir and the former Vice President Riek Machar on May 10.
Church leaders who were present at the signing of the peace agreement in Addis Ababa included Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Episcopal Church of Sudan and Rev Samuel Kobia, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Commenting on the signing of the peace agreement, Mgr. Lukudu Loro stated that "all South Sudanese had been waiting for this day for the last five months". The Civil War broke out in mid-December (see Fides 16/12/2013), when President Kiir reported an attempted coup d'état organized by his Deputy, Machar. The comparison between the two political parties has assumed an ethnic and tribal dimension sinking the young state (South Sudan declared its independence in July 2011) in a terrible humanitarian crisis, with at least a million displaced. "This is the time to correct the costly mistakes of the South Sudanese leaders, ending the war now, for all of which churches and the ecumenical community have been advocating for the last two months", reiterated the Archbishop of Juba. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/05/2014)