South Sudanese Military Urged to “respect life, dignity of human beings” for Peace

He further emphasized the need for civilians and the army to strive for cooperation based on the principle of mutuality, saying, “Let’s build good relations among ourselves so that we can be able to move forward.”

“There is no army that doesn’t want to stay with civilians because the army is defending civilians and civilians are feeding them,” Bishop Lodiong explained, and added, “There is no army that can survive without the presence of the civilians; that’s why the relationship between the two is very important.”

The Local Ordinary of Yei Diocese continued, “If we have soldiers listening to us, there should be good relationships among us as the people of this country.”

“We will find ways to talk to those in the bush because it’s very important that they have a good relationship with the civilians,” he further said, and called on the political leaders in South Sudan “to look at the situation of our people because all of us have the right to life and a good living.”

The Catholic Church leader went on to appeal to Salva Kiir-led government to address the challenges that ordinary South Sudanese are facing.

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He said in reference to the challenging situation of many South Sudanese, “We will take this issue from here and tell our politicians for them to know that those who are down here are suffering.”

“As a Church, we will not see our people suffering and keep quiet because those people are created in the image of the Church,” Bishop Lodiong said during the February 25 event.

Patrick Juma Wani is a South Sudanese journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. Patrick holds a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Makerere Institute for Social Development (MISD) in Uganda. He has over 7 years of extensive experience in leading the development and implementation of media, advocacy, communication and multimedia strategy and operations, with an excellent track record of editorial leadership, budget management, and stakeholder outreach. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.