The fighting was particularly intense Monday and Tuesday in and around Malakal, where the South Sudan Covenant offices and its ministry center are located.
The violence apparently has broken a two-year-old peace deal between the Arab north and the black African south, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
“The violence started as clashes between southern troops and pro-Khartoum militia, but quickly escalated,” the BBC reports. “There were reports of heavy gunfire in Malakal, but no reliable word on casualties.”
The situation had calmed somewhat on Wednesday, but United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan remains concerned over the outbreak of violence, appealing to Sudan’s national unity and the government of southern Sudan to “make all possible efforts to contain the situation.”
During 20 years of civil war, Khartoum armed numerous tribal militias in the area to enable it to begin extracting oil, the BBC report notes. A final peace deal was signed in January 2005, but militia members have been reluctant to hand in their weapons. “Unlike the continuing conflict in Darfur, Sudan’s north-south ceasefire has largely held,” the BBC states. Ten thousand United Nations peacekeepers remain deployed in southern Sudan.
“We need to pray for our brothers and sisters who faithfully minister through the outreach of the Covenant Church in South Sudan,” says Curt Peterson, executive minister of Covenant World Mission for the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).
To read more about the partnership work of the South Sudan Church and the ECC, please see South Sudan.
