Lay Catholic Community in Rome Concerned about “widespread hunger” as Fighting Rages on in Sudan

The deteriorating humanitarian situation is also a concern for ACN, which has launched an emergency aid campaign in Portugal to support those fleeing the Sudan conflict and who are now refugees in countries in the region, particularly South Sudan.

The Catholic charity foundation describes the civil war in Sudan that as one of the forgotten wars in the world, adding that the violence involved has already caused thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people and refugees.

According to the July 12 ACN report, the situation in Sudan “is indeed extremely serious” as an estimated 15,000 people have been killed and 8.6 million displaced has received very little media coverage. It has reportedly resulted in the largest population of displaced children in the world.  

Additionally, the war has left 25 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance where an estimated 18 million are facing severe hunger.

ACN estimates that there will be around 10.7 million displaced people and refugees, which, according to the Pontifical charity foundation, “represents one of the biggest humanitarian crises on the Planet.”

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Speaking at a virtual event that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized on July 12, Stephen Ameyu Martin Cardinal Mulla of South Sudan expressed concern that war continues to ravage the Church in Sudan.

“As we speak one city is being attacked with the fiercest weapons of destruction. Drones are being used and many innocent people are being killed in a city called Sennar in Sudan,” the Archbishop of South Sudan’s Catholic Archdiocese of Juba said in his address at the sixth session of the ongoing synodal conversations.

In his appeal for prayers for the end of fighting that is in its second year, Cardinal Ameyu said, “What is happening in Sudan and South Sudan is terrible, and I invite all of you to pray for us.”

The Archbishop of Juba lamented the downfall of Sudan, saying that the country had been a beacon of hope for neighbouring South Sudan, which is reeling from decades of war.

“We lived in Sudan and saw it as our hope for a better future. But now, violence has ruined everything. Everyone wants revenge,” the Local Ordinary of South Sudan’s only Metropolitan See said.

“We are going back to the Old Testament of tit for tat and an eye for an eye. In Sudan and South Sudan, we are not living the New Testament,” Cardinal Ameyu lamented.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.