Churches want new international engagement on Sudan

By Fredrick Nzwili

[Ecumenical News International, Nairobi] Africa’s largest church grouping is calling for urgent international re-engagement on southern Sudan, saying resettlement programs are failing and a fragile peace pact is being flouted.

The All Africa Conference of Churches, whose president is Archbishop Valentine Mokiwa of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, said in a statement on Nov. 9 that the undermining of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in 2005 between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the government of Sudan, is a major threat to peace in the Horn of Africa.

“There is need to engage … those with the responsibility to ensure human security and [call for] an immediate stop to recurrent violence and clashes being recorded in different parts of the country,” said the Rev. Andre Karamaga, the AACC general secretary.

Karamaga, a Presbyterian from Rwanda, described Sudan as being at a crossroads and called on the sponsors of the CPA to take greater responsibility and action to ensure all parties honor the pact. He also urged Sudanese churches, which have a strong presence in the south of the country, to heighten the work of peace and reconciliation.

“It had become evident the resettlement program had failed, and inadequate efforts were being made to address the plight of IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] and returnees,” noted Karamaga.

The people lack basic services, justice and live in constant fear of eviction or abuse, he added.

Sudanese church leaders have been hoping that an election scheduled for April 2010, for which voter registration was launched on Nov. 1, might change the country.

Karamaga, however, said he regrets that the level of awareness about the registration period and the poll itself seems very low.

The African church leader urged churches and their partners to prioritize voter education so that the people can make free and informed choices.

Relief agencies have for some time warned of escalating violence in the south of the country, where the peace pact ended 21 years of civil war. At the same time, a humanitarian crisis has continued to unfold in Darfur, a region the size of France in the west of the country, where church leaders fear insecurity could hurt the elections.

“In Darfur many will not vote because of the insecurity there, and in the other areas of Sudan many will not be interested in the elections,” the Rev. Antonio Menegazzo, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Administrator of El Obeid diocese, which covers Darfur, told Ecumenical News International on Oct. 26.