(OSV News) ─ Catholic bishops in Sudan and South Sudan have expressed distress at the brutal killing of nearly 178 people in northern South Sudan on March 2.
Local officials say unidentified armed youths ─ allegedly linked to the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition ─ carried out the assault in the Ruweng Administrative Area. Authorities report at least 90 civilians, including women, children and the elderly, were killed, along with 79 soldiers. Many survivors fled to a nearby U.N. peacekeeping base for safety.
The attack marked the latest round of violence that has left the world's youngest nation on the edge of full-scale war.
Bishop Christian Carlassare of Bentiu, said the guns were heard at the Parish of Mary Help of Christians in his diocese.
"Our land is being wounded by conflict. We do not need to experience more conflicts. Conflict only brings destruction, fear and deeper suffering," the bishop told OSV News in WhatsApp texts.
"We do not yet know who is responsible for this criminal act, but whoever is involved, we appeal to every heart: Choose dialogue, not violence. Choose the courage of peace over the illusion of power," he said.
"Let us protect the little we have left and refuse to allow hatred to take more from our people," added the bishop, while calling on the authorities and the government to take their responsibility seriously and to provide security for the population.
"Our people deserve protection, stability and the possibility to live without fear," Bishop Carlassare said while recalling Pope Leo XIV's message for World Day of Peace, in which he invited humanity to begin a "disarmament of heart, mind and life."
"Our land has already been consumed by too much violence. Many families are displaced. Many are grieving. We cannot add more suffering to those who are already carrying heavy burdens," said Bishop Carlassare.
On March 2, bishops under the Sudan and South Sudan bishops' conference condemned the latest killings as a fresh descent into the abyss of human depravity, where the sanctity of life is trampled upon with alarming impunity.
"We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, these heinous and senseless killings. There can be no justification whatsoever for the murder of civilians," said the statement signed by 10 bishops, including Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, who is president of the Sudan and South Sudan bishops' conference.
"The blood of our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters shed not on the battlefield, but within their own communities, cries out to Heaven," said the statement, which expressed particular closeness with affected dioceses and their bishops ─ Bishop Carlassare and Bishop Stephen Nyodho Ador Majwok of Malakal.
While expressing profound sorrow and alarm at the persistent cruelty of violence in the country, the bishops renounced the culture of deadly revenge.
"With pastoral honesty, we must confront a painful truth: the culture of deadly revenge has taken root in parts of our society," said the bishops, warning that cycles of retaliation, fueled by anger, collective blame and historical grievances continue to weaken communities, and rob the country's children of their future.
The bishops urged the government to act immediately to find the killers in the two areas and bring them to justice.
They also called on Christians and the people of Sudan and South Sudan to join in prayers for the end of the cycle of violence.
South Sudan gained independence in 2011, but in 2013, the world's youngest nation descended into a brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and forced millions out of their homes.
The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, signed in 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ended countrywide fighting and allowed the formation of a transitional government.
Pope Francis had a role in bringing together warring sides of the conflict. On April 12, 2019, the pontiff famously knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan's political leaders at the end of a spiritual retreat at the Vatican.
Many of the 2018 pact's commitments, including general elections and reforms in national security, were never implemented.
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Fredrick Nzwili writes for OSV News from Nairobi, Kenya.
