Hard news from South Sudan

The Diocese of Chicago, which has a companion relationship with the Diocese of Renk, links to difficult news this morning about the deteriorating situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

UN has already estimated that more than 418,000 people have been displaced since fighting between Sudanese government forces and indigenous rebels erupted in South Kordofan in June last year and later spread to Blue Nile in September.

According to Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), nearly 2,000 new refugees from Blue Nile had arrived in neighboring Assosa region in western Ethiopia so far in May.

“The refugees cited night-time killings, abductions and the burning of their crops as reasons for fleeing” the UN spokesperson said in a press release seen by Sudan Tribune.

Assosa region contains a refugee camp that is already hosting nearly 35,000 refugees mainly from Sudan.

Numerous Episcopal dioceses are in companion relationships with dioceses in Sudan, so news of what happens there, often gets here quickly. Please keep the people of the region in your prayers. To learn more, visit the Diocese of Chicago's Renk Media Team or the American Friends of the Episcopal Church in Sudan.

Please feel free to tell update us on news from Sudan, or to tell us about your diocese's relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan in the comments.

Comments (1)

The Episcopal Church of Sudan and Roman Catholic bishops recently completed a meeting together. Their statement is worth reading, particularly on the diminishing status of the UN: http://groups.google.com/group/sudan-john-ashworth/browse_thread/thread/daec08a5b42a615f

There is this news as well, from the Diocese of Aweil, like Renk, another of the border dioceses though the issues it faces are somewhat different, for a variety of complex reasons: http://jessezink.com/2012/05/05/news-from-sudan/

-Jesse

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