A South Sudanese Church leader is applauding the Sudanese host communities of White Nile state for their hospitality towards South Sudanese refugees.
Speaking to CRN on Friday in Juba, Monsignor Roko Taban Musa, the apostolic administrator for Catholic Diocese of Malakal, says he was pleased to see some improvement on the humanitarian situation on the South Sudanese refugees in Sudan.
Musa adds that Sudanese authority and some International Organizations are providing basic services to the refugees such as education, health among others. ‘The relationship between the refugees and the state authority is much better than before, Musa reveals.
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‘They are now completely welcomed by the host community and because of that welcoming their security situation, their human situation [are] improving [are] becoming well. They are becoming friendly then before with the host community’, Musa told CRN.
There are more than 170 thousands South Sudanese refugees currently sheltering in seven camps in Al-Salam locality of the Sudanese White Nile state.
Monsignor Musa explains that he was on a pastoral visit to the refugees camp in Sudan to give them spiritual support so that they can have a continue sense of hope in life despite challenges they faced.
‘The message of the Church is to continuously to give sense of hope to the people especially the refugees, who may be feeling down who may be feeling discouraged; but yet they Church has to give them that sense of hope. Hope in themselves, hope in the Lord and hope in the future’, Musa said
The religious leader says many of the refugees have express their need for peace and stability in South Sudan and they want to return to their homes and continue with their lives.
Musa urges the parties currently participating in talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to compromise and bring lasting peace in the country so that refugees could return to their homes.
‘Peace is realizable, Musa notes, only that we have to make a step forward. As Saint Augustine said ones: ‘He who created you without you cannot save you without you’. If there many things that we should lose in order to arrive to peace let us lose them. Musa adds.
White Nile state hosts the largest South Sudanese refugees in Sudan.