AFRECS E-Blast: November 21, 2022

Posted on by AmerFriendSudan
Executive Director’s Update
Perusing reports from the Sudans in recent weeks, I find a couple of positive notes from South Sudan.  First, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) peacekeeping force reports that in the third quarter of 2022 civilian casualties have fallen significantly – a 60 percent decrease in violent incidents involving civilians, and a 23 percent drop in civilian deaths and injuries. Second, the South Sudanese People’s Defense Forces (formerly SPLA) have set up courts to try troops accused of crimes of sexual and gender-based violence. Third, in early November President Kiir’s national security advisor, Tut Galuak Manime, reached agreement with the Sudan Sovereignty Council Vice Chair, General Mohamed Dagalo (Hemedti) on a peace arrangement for Abyei. This border area has “special administrative status” under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war between North and South.  That would mark a first agreement on a key unresolved element of the 2005 CPA, but comes at a time when the authority of the Sovereignty Council in Khartoum is much in question.Alongside those positive signs, close observers of the Sudans have to put a new report from the Small Arms Survey, published in Switzerland. The Survey asserts that after the Kiir Administration succeeded in peeling away Vice President Riek Machar’s SPLM/IO commanders from him, they sat by while those commanders began fighting among themselves.  The resultant clashes have displaced more than 10,000 people, leaving the Upper Nile region in “chaos.”

From the Episcopal Church, we are awaiting news of the outcome of the November meeting of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and of the November synod of the Episcopal Church of Sudan. The latter will be looking at possible selection of a new Primate or extension of the mandate of Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo.
Many South Sudanese, including this child, were forcibly relocated from Sudan after the 2011 separation of the country, finding themselves homeless in the border area of Abyei. Credit: Larry Duffee
A Prayer for the Church
by David Colin Jones, retired suffragan bishop of Virginia

O Lord, our God, we hold before you your churches in Sudan and South Sudan. Through your grace, empower your churches to be beacons of hope, advocates of peace, and agents of reconciliation. Give to your people a sure confidence in your abiding love and the promise of salvation. We ask this in the Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Comings and Goings
The Reverend Jerry Drino of San Jose, California, a long-time supporter of soccer for peace and scholarships for South Sudanese refugees studying in Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya, has written to commend to bishops in The Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. the Reverend Rev. Jacob Nhial Guut. Guut’s  first language is Dinka, and he speaks other Sudanese languages, serving in Kakuma refugee camp as dean of the Episcopal congregations overseeing more than 50,000 Christians. Drino’s telephone is 408-806-4506.

Mrs. Abuk Ajak returned home to Burke, Virginia after accompanying her mother Maria Awak Joseph in Australia during her final illness in September and October.  The burial took place in Melbourne Oct. 7. Reflecting, Abuk believes God was at work in the timing of the visit and of the death.

Dane Smith and Will Putz met Robert Ihloff, Assistant Bishop, among other attendees at the annual convention of the Diocese of Maryland November 11-12 in Ellicott City. Smith, while in Ohio, met the Rev. Andy McQuery, rector of Christ Church, Oberlin.
Ecumenical Peacebuilding Visit to South Sudan Anticipated for Early 2023
by Richard J. Jones

Speaking at Virginia Seminary November 10th, Archbishop Ian Ernest mentioned that an ecumenical peacebuilding visit by Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, postponed last August, is now anticipated to take place early in 2023.

Currently directing the Anglican Centre in Rome, Ernest spoke about the usefulness of this listening post on Piazza del Collegio Romano near the Vatican, with its spaces for face-to-face ecumenical encounters and lodging for visitors (ww.anglicancentreinrome.org).

The Most. Rev. Ian Ernest, Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome (Middle), pictured with his wife Kamla (right of him) and the Virginia Theological Seminary’s Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) staff.

Ernest is acquainted with Sant’Egidio, the international Roman Catholic lay organization of peace activists who helped arranged the 2019 encounter at the Vatican of President Kiir with First Vice President Riek Machar, when the pope kissed the rival leaders’ shoes and exhorted them to make peace.

Ernest, a former Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean and a citizen of the island republic of Mauritius, looks forward to working with the new Secretary General of the Anglican Communion in London, Anthony Poggo Dangasuk, former bishop of Kajo-Keji. He has written to Archbishop Justin Badi Arama of South Sudan, chairman of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Bishops, saying that he hopes the Centre will address the pressing issues of poverty, global warming, and hunger.
A Manual for the Health of South Sudan
An American and a Sudanese have collaborated to produce a community health manual for South Sudan.

This new work seeks to embrace an African worldview. The authors see health as “a state of complete well-being based on a way of living, conduct, and behavior in relation to others. It gives due respect to the person’s dignity and links the person with God, ancestors, community, and environment.” 

Barry Hart, a professor emeritus at Eastern Mennonite University, with his colleague, Bena Mark, a lecturer in psychology at Juba University, recently completed a one-year project with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in South Sudan. They trained forty-five Psychosocial Support Facilitators in trauma awareness, resilience, psychosocial support, psychological first-aid, peacebuilding, restorative justice and trustbuilding—as well as a range of related subjects specific to South Sudan, but which can be applied to other settings.

Their training manual is freely available for downloading at this link: https://www.undp.org/south-sudan/publications/community-training-manual-trauma-awareness-and-psychosocial-support-trauma-affected-communities-south-sudan

Barry and Mark describe a five-day training for Community Volunteer Counselors. They emphasize psychosocial support, not clinical healing, which is the domain of professional psychiatrists and psychologists.
Glow Mission Academy Primary School
AFRECS monitors humanitarian affairs in South Sudan and maintains communication with church leaders in South Sudan to identify areas of greatest need.  One of the areas of greatest need — also of hope — is the Glow Mission Academy Primary School (Glow Maps), located in the former Protection of Civilians Camp #3.

Since its founding with AFRECS’s support in 2016, the School has been teaching and feeding children, most of whom are missing one or both of their parents as a result of the political conflict.  The School has been successful in leading children towards a future path away from violence, while also achieving some of the highest standardized test scores among schools in the area.  The School has grown from 50 to 500 students in short order, which creates some funding shortfalls and growing pains.  Your tax-deductible donation to AFRECS will be used to help continue and expand this successful program.
South Sudan Listed as One of the World’s Worst Food Insecurity Emergencies
 On October 1, 2021, the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., in Juba, David Renz, re-declared a disaster in South Sudan for FY 2022 due to:

  • ongoing conflict and population displacement;
  • severe floods;
  • restricted humanitarian access;
  • and the disruption of cultivation activities, markets, and trade,
  • all of which have significantly exacerbated food insecurity and humanitarian needs.

Here are the links to the latest USAID Update/Fact Sheet on the humanitarian situation and response in South Sudan, forwarded by AFRECS Board member, Tom Staal. These two documents have easy to read graphics and maps.

South Sudan Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7

South Sudan US Government Response to Complex Emergency Map

USG South Sudan Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7
Please go to U.S. Government (USG) South Sudan Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7 for Fiscal Year 2022 and accompanying program map, both dated September 30, 2022.

Highlights

  • Continued insecurity across Upper Nile State—including attacks on civilians—is displacing thousands of individuals, according to relief actors.
  • Flooding across South Sudan since May had adversely affected approximately 386,000 people as of September 19, the UN reports.
  • South Sudan will continue to face one of the largest food insecurity emergencies worldwide through January 2023, with many households likely to experience Emergency—IPC 4—or worse outcomes, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
We are deeply grateful that contributions from you, our supporters, continue to nurture AFRECS in expanding our impact.  You make a difference in the essential peacebuilding work of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, so needed in these challenging times. We hope you will make a contribution to support our work with the people of the Sudans and offer a prayer for their nations. You can contribute online at https://afrecs.org or send a check made out to AFRECS to P.O. Box 3327, Alexandria, VA 22302.
This issue was compiled by AFRECS Board members Richard Jones, Anita Sanborn, and Tom Staal. AFRECS craves your comments, corrections, and contributions of news, photos, or reflection. Please send to anitasanborn@gmail.com.