By Stoyan Zaimov
Christian pastors and priests have been providing shelter and saving lives as a deadly ethnic conflict rages on in South Sudan.
“What these people have done deserves to be told publicly to strongly emphasize the role that churches can play in shaping the future of our country,” South Sudanese priest Fr. Mark Oper Omolm shared with Agenzia Fides, the news agency of the Vatican, as he detailed several accounts of Roman Catholic priests and Protestant pastors risking their lives to save civilians.
In one such account, Evangelical Pastor Abraham Makuac saved several Nuer people following fighting in the capital, Juba. He opened his house and church to protect civilians, despite having lost his own brother who was brutally killed in the fighting.
South Sudan, which became the world’s youngest nation following its independence from Sudan in 2011, has been locked in intense fighting for the past three weeks, according to Reuters, which has resulted in at least 1,000 deaths and over 200,000 people displaced.
The ethnically-charged conflict flared up between supporters of President Salva Kiir and recently deposed vice president Riek Machar, who make up members of the Dinka and Nuer groups, respectively.
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/christian-pastors-priests-saving-lives-in-south-sudan-amid-turmoil-112279/