Nairobi, 25 October (ENI)–Sudanese church leaders seeking a peaceful settlement of tensions between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army and the country’s governing National Congress Party, fear another war could erupt in the south of Africa’s biggest country.
‘We hope they will find a peaceful solution to the problem. Another war is hard to imagine. The region is tired of war. The people don’t want war,’ the Rev. Anthony Bagoye, the general secretary of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Regional Conference told Ecumenical News International in Nairobi on 24 October.
On 11 October, the SPLM/A withdrew from Sudan’s Government of National Unity amidst allegations that the NCP had violated a 2005 peace agreement signed in Nairobi, Kenya, which ended 21 years of war in the south. At the time, it was Africa’s longest conflict.
‘We have witnessed delaying tactics from the north [government], but we strongly feel the Comprehensive Peace Agreement should be implemented,’ said Bagoye.
Keys ingredients in the SPLMA/A allegations are the failure to implement a protocol under the peace agreement in the oil rich Abyei region, a lack of transparency in oil sector operations, a failure to withdraw the Sudanese armed forces from the south, and a delay in north-south border demarcation.
‘The international community helped in brokering the CPA [peace agreement]; we urge them to come and see what is happening,’ said Bagoye.
But a priest from the Comboni Roman Catholic order who runs projects in South Sudan told The East African, a regional weekly newspaper, on 23 October that the real problem is the presence in both parties of people who believe their own interests will be served by a continuation of war.
‘We knew all along, especially in the last four months, that the CPA was collapsing. Both parties have been readying for military actions,’ said the Rev. Kizito Sesana. He said that he believed that the government of south Sudan was trying to get Darfur rebels to ally with the SPLM/A against Khartoum, the newspaper reported.
The SPLM/A leader, Salva Kiir, says his movement is committed to the peace accord after years of fighting for freedom and equality. He insists there will be no return to war, something some church leaders, who played a key role in brokering peace in 2005, are beginning to doubt.
