South Sudan Christians Displaced After Islamists Kill Dozens

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JUBA (Worthy News) – Attacks by “Islamic extremists” in a border region of South Sudan killed dozens of people and left “huge numbers of Christian villagers with nothing but their clothes,” aid workers told Worthy News.

At least 28 people were reportedly killed, and 57 houses burned this month in violence against the Christian community of Yith Pabol village in Aweil East county near Sudan.

A similar attack in the first week of January nearby Miodol village left at least four people dead and three others missing, added Christian aid group, Barnabus Fund.

It quoted local Bishop Joseph Mamer Manot saying that “massive displacement has happened, and the humanitarian situation is alarming.” He added that “food and other property have been burned down into ashes, leaving survivors with no shelters, no food, and no safe drinking water.”

Barnabas Fund said the “Islamist extremist attackers” had come over the border from Sudan – “as so often happens in this vulnerable part of South Sudan.”

South Sudan is a majority Christian nation that gained independence in 2011, making it the youngest country globally, but has faced civil war since its beginning.

DISPLACED CHRISTIANS

Amid the turmoil, Barnabas Fund said it had “previously channeled aid to displaced South Sudanese Christians” and planned to send more relief to desperate believers,

“Huge numbers of Christian villagers are now left with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. Tents, clothing, medicines, and especially food and safe drinking water are urgently needed,” the group told Worthy News.

“Local communities in South Sudan are doing their best to help their brothers and sisters but have few resources.”

South Sudan is a majority Christian nation that gained independence in 2011, making it the youngest country in the world and one that has been mired in a civil war since its beginning.

In August of last year, two nuns were shot and killed in “cold blood by jihadists” while driving along South Sudan’s Juba-Nimule highway, according to Christians familiar with the case.

“Islam is now invading South Sudan. They’re saying South Sudan is a strategic place and that [it] will be the gate to Africa [so that] Islam can go to all of Africa,” an unidentified believer told Mission Network News after the murders.

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