In response to prayers for the people of Pibor and Akobo counties of southern Sudan, we have received the following note from our partners in Eastern Jonglei Presbyery:
Brothers and sisters in the Lord
On behalf of Eastern Jonglei Presbytery, SALT (Serving and Learning Together) Leadership and the entire Murle Community, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for moral support and tireless prayers for Murle Community in their time of distress and tribulation caused by their Nuer brothers. God heard your prayers. The Nuer youth were planning to come back again for a third time but through your prayers and dissemination of the vital information even to key figures in UN, we learned that their third attempt to attack Murle Community failed.
The Murle Community in Jowom valley and Achowa River, are still counting their lost. Some families lost both members and cattle. We have never seen terrible devastation as such before in my life.
The Church in Pibor County is praying for a lasting peace in Jonglei State. Murle, Nuer, Dinka, Anyuak, Kachipo and Jiye although they are one people in Jonglei State, they have never experience peace among themselves for many decades. The Government with the strong SPLA Army is not able to contain the situation. The politicians are not able to address and uproot the root cause of these conflicts. Since no one to rescue the situation, we need intervention of God himself so that he could change the hearts of these communities in order to refrain from this cycle of violence.
The Church and my Peace Desk are preaching peace in Pibor County. We are urging the Murle Youth to seek justice through peaceful and legal means and not through retaliation. We also pray for The Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and the State Government not to practice partiality in matters relating to human life. The SPLA Army are deployed in all counties in Southern Sudan in order to maintain peace and order and not to allow citizen to kill each other while they watch.
We need the Lord to touch the heart of GOSS and that of SPLA Army so that they do justice in all its forms in Southern Sudan and beyond its borders. The Devil has established his Kingdom in Jonglei State therefore, we need strong faith including prayers and fasting in order to uproot it
Continue praying for us. We need peace and stability in the fragile situation in Southern Sudan and in Jonglei State in Particular. I pray that all the Churches in three Counties Pibor, Akobo, and Bor to unite in preaching peace and unity among the people
Orozu Lokine Daky
SALT Executive Director & Director for Peace Desk
Eastern Jonglei Presbytery
Pibor, South Sudan