“God has spread His powerful wings over Dar Mariam! Thus, He protects us, provides for us, gives us rather good health,” he said, and appealed, “Continue to pray for us and the Sudan!”
In what has been described as one of the world’s forgotten wars, an estimated 15 million people have been killed and 8.6 million others displaced since violence erupted in South Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, on 15 April 2023, and quickly spread across the entire Northeastern African country.
Additionally, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left 25 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance where an estimated 18 million people are facing severe hunger.
At Dar Mariam community located in Shajara, about seven kilometers from Khartoum, people who have been displaced by the war that is in its second year are struggling to survive, with their hope for evacuation dwindling.
In the June 28 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. Thelekkadan said that the biggest challenge for the people who are stuck in the heavy gunfire is getting water and food. As a result, he said, the only available food is sold at up to seven times more than it cost before war broke out.
“Finding food is always a challenge, though it is a bit easier now than four months ago since there are some merchants who take the risk of going in a military boat at night across River Nile to bring and sell food here in Shajara though the price of things will be five to seven times more,” he said.
“Water is pumped every two days for us and the people around using our generator. As and when diesel is available, the generator is put on every two days,” the Salesian Priest, who served as the Director of St. Joseph Vocational Training Centre in Khartoum told ACI Africa.
He said that even though not everyone residing at Dar Mariam, the community of the Salesian Sisters of St. Don Bosco, is Christian, the suffering that brought them together has drawn the community closer to God.
“The people here are not all Catholics, and not all are even Christian. There are Muslims, pagan, and so on. But the Christian community joins us everyday for the Eucharist, adoration, and rosary service,” Fr. Thelekkadan said.
In an update that Fr. Thelekkadan shared with ACI Africa in May, he said that residents of Dar Marian had had a number of life-threatening experiences, a situation that the Salesian Priest described as “the experience of the nearness of God” from the time the community was first bombed on 3 November 2023.
