Hello! I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the new year. I just wanted to write a quick update on how things are going on mission here in Africa. On January 6th Mike and I found out that we were being reassigned to serve in Kenya until the conflict subsides in South Sudan. Less the 24 hours later we were on a flight from Juba to Nairobi and we have been staying with the Salesians in Upper Hill (Nairobi) since our arrival on the 7th. Mike and I have enjoyed our first week or so in Kenya but of course we wish we were here on different circumstances. Gumbo truly feels like home now and we both are anxious to get back to the community and our ministry there. We are continuing to pray for peace in South Sudan and hope that the fighting ceases soon. Please keep the people of South Sudan in your prayers as well, for more and more people are being forced to leave their homes and are losing their loved ones due to the conflict everyday. Unfortunately, it does not seem like there is going to be an end to the fighting as soon as we all would have hoped. Both sides are refusing to agree to a ceasefire and the peace talks in Ethiopia have yet to produce any positive results. This afternoon Mike and I will be moving to our temporary site in Nzaikoni, Kenya where we will be serving until we can return to South Sudan. We do not know what kind of ministry we will be doing there but we look forward to serving the people of Nzaikoni in any way that we can.
In addition to this brief update and thought I would share with you a short article I wrote for the Salesians here in Upper Hill for the Don Bosco Kenya website on the situation in South Sudan. I wrote this the first day we were here so things have progressed a bit since but here it is:
“Salesians Aid Refugees as Conflict
Continues in South Sudan”
For the past three
weeks Africa’s youngest nation, South Sudan, has been experiencing unrest, a
mere two years after its independence from the north. What started out as a
supposed political “coup” has escalated into not only a political but ethnic
conflict as well, which has driven the country to the brink of civil war. The
fighting has mostly been within the national army itself, between those loyal
to current president Salva Kiir (of the Dinka tribe) and those loyal to ex-vice
president Reik Machar (of the Nuer tribe). Hundreds of thousands have been
displaced due to these events and thousands of people have been killed. Over the
past few days, peace talks have begun in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but an
agreement has not yet been reached and fighting continues to plague the nation.
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| Women cooking in the UN compound on the outskirts of Juba where many people from our parish are currently seeking refuge. |
In South Sudan the Salesians of Don
Bosco currently run four centres located in Juba, Maridi, Wau, and Tonj. Since
the fighting began on the 15th of December the Salesian community in
Juba have been working tirelessly to assist those who have been displaced. During the days leading up to Christmas they
housed, fed, and provided medication to nearly one hundred refugees from local
villages. After a few days they also provided them with safe transportation to
the UN compound on the outskirts of Juba. As the conflict continues the number
of refugees in the Juba UN compound has reached an estimated 30,000 and this
number is increasing daily.
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| Refugees staying at the secondary school at the Salesian mission in Gumbo. |
More recently the current fighting
in the northern cities of Bor, Malakal, and Bentiu has sent even more people to
flee their homes and seek refuge in Juba and in neighboring countries of South
Sudan. Over three hundred people (mostly women and children) arrived at Don
Bosco – Juba on the evening of the 6th of January seeking refuge.
The fighting in Bor which is currently held by the rebel forces continues and
the national army is reportedly working to take it back from them for a second
time in the past three weeks. We continue to hope and pray that the fighting
ceases soon and peace can be found once again in South Sudan.
