Sep 21, 2009 / 14:33 pm
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, who ministers in a remote southern corner of Sudan, is calling for international aid to protect his people from roving bands of guerilla fighters, stating that local efforts are not sufficient.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in the Need (ACN), Bishop Hiiboro of Tombura-Yambio, Sudan said that the increasingly common yet unpredictable attacks on innocent civilians cannot be stopped without help from outside Sudan.
The storming of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in the town of Ezo prompted the bishop’s call for help. A large number of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) soldiers desecrated the building and abducted 17 young adults. Not long after, one of the missing young men was found dead, having been tied to a tree and mutilated. Three more of the abducted people returned the next day, but the other 13 are still missing.
Less than a week later, six people were ambushed in a forest near the neighboring town of Nzara, where they were nailed to pieces of wood fastened to the ground and killed. According to Aid to the Church in Need, those who found the bodies “likened it to a grotesque crucifixion scene.” And by the time the bodies were discovered, an additional 12 abductions had been reported.