Bishops Decry Violence in El Fasher
Religious Leaders Call for Cessation of War Crimes
Reports of unrestrained violence continue to surface following the capture of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the latest development in Sudan’s civil war that has now stretched beyond two and a half years.
Read the full story from the Catholic World Report
The battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF – who attacked Sudan’s capital in April of 2023, launching the country into civil war – has devastated the nation’s infrastructure as well as its civilian population. Estimates put more than 12 million displaced and the death toll at 150,000, though it is likely far higher.
Most recently, an estimated 2,000 people have been killed in the RSF’s lengthy campaign to capture the city of El Fasher. Some 250,000 civilians remain trapped inside the Darfur region, reportedly surrounded by barricades, unable to leave. Witnesses say those who try to escape are shot. Those who remain trapped have no access to food, medicine, or contact with the outside world from communication blackouts.
Religious leaders in South Sudan are speaking out against the violence and lack of intervention by the international community. SRF partner Bishop Christian Carlassare of Bentiu, and Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio, have called for immediate ceasefires on both sides to open up pathways for humanitarian aid. They’re also calling on the warring factions to uphold human dignity and for the cessation of reported atrocities amounting to war crimes.
Both bishops expressed their dismay at the lack of global response to the crisis. “It is a forgotten war, because the people are really forgotten,” said Bishop Carlassare in an October 30 statement.
The Italian-born member of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ) says the international community has been turning a blind eye to the tragedy and carnage in Darfur. He also accused weapons merchants of “cashing in on the blood of the Sudanese people,” referring to the warring parties exploiting Sudan’s rich natural resources – particularly gold – at the expense of innocent lives.
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, spokesperson for the Bishops’ Conference of Sudan and South Sudan, decried the plight of trapped civilians. “Some of our beloved have been killed, many wounded, and countless others – especially the elderly, women, children, and the disabled – are in desperate conditions.” He urged both sides to end the fighting and respect human life.
As the violence escalates, Pope Leo XIV offered up a prayer on November 2nd for El Fasher victims and the ongoing conflict, underscoring the cry for the fighting and carnage to end.
“Indiscriminate violence against women and children, attacks on unarmed civilians and serious obstacles to humanitarian aid are causing unbearable suffering for a population already exhausted by long months of conflict,” the pope said.
Sudan Relief Fund continues to support relief efforts, sending emergency food and medicine to the Nuba Mountains where over a million displaced have fled. If you would like to support humanitarian aid to this devastated region, please go here to help.
As El Fasher Falls in Sudan Civil War, Stories of War Crimes Escalate
“The situation is very bad” – UN Head of Humanitarian Operations in Sudan
As the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have surrounded and claimed El Fasher, the capital city of Sudan’s North Darfur state, reports of atrocities against civilians are emerging from those who’ve escaped.
Read the Full Story: Vatican News
The Darfur region has been a stronghold throughout the conflict for the RSF, who launched an attack in April of 2023 on Sudan’s capital city of Khartoum. The city was recovered in March by the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), but fighting continues to devastate the country, raging past the two and a half year mark.
The forced displacement of 12 million people has led to more than a million internal refugees fleeing to areas like the Nuba Mountains for refuge, where aid efforts by Sudan Relief Fund are ongoing.
Civilians of Darfur have been suspected of suffering war crimes at the hands of the RSF since the conflict began, in one of the areas worst afflicted by famine and starvation, with reports of the RSF withholding food from civilians as a weapon against the government.
Since the RSF controls the area and has blocked communications, civilians trapped inside El Fasher and other parts of Darfur have struggled to reach the outside world, deepening the challenge of obtaining information or providing humanitarian aid to that region.
While the RSF is allegedly refusing to let anyone leave the area, civilians who’ve made it out are bringing reports that paint a brutal picture of life behind enemy lines. Stories by survivors include mass executions of men, random killings of elderly people, women and girls being raped at gunpoint, and shootings of the sick or injured who were being treated in temporary medical shelters.
Sudan Relief Fund continues to support food and medical relief efforts in the Nuba Mountains to aid massive numbers of displaced families, many who’ve endured extensive trauma. Mother of Mercy remains one of the few hospitals still operating in the region, serving victims of famine, a cholera outbreak, and civilians injured in harrowing escapes from war zones. If you would like to join this effort to help send emergency food and medicine to families in what’s being recognized as the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe today, please go here to make a difference.
When Food Disputes Turn Deadly
Mother Saved After Near Fatal Stabbing
As the entire region of Sudan continues to battle food insecurity, sacks of relief food containing critical staples like maize or sorghum become more valuable than money. Unfortunately, they also become a prime target for robbery.
A combination of effects from the Sudanese civil war, with consecutive years of severe weather, devastated the food supply in this heavily agrarian region.
Mariam is a mother of seven children. Worrying about having enough to feed her children during this time of scarcity weighs heavily on her mind and heart. But the day she was bringing a sack of vital grains home to her family, she felt relief at knowing there would be enough, at least for a while.
She was not aware that someone else had followed her with the intent to steal her rations – a ruthless individual willing to go to criminal lengths to take it from her.
Mariam gratefully placed the sack in her home, and was attending to her children when the assailant made his move. Before she even knew what was happening, Mariam felt a hot and searing pain from a knife wound in her back. She fell to the floor, involuntarily sinking into unconsciousness.
Her children rushed to surround her and began to scream and cry. Neighbors heard, and came to check on her. Fortunately, someone wrapped up Mariam, still unconscious, and took her immediately to the local clinic in Tujur to get help.
But the stab wound was severe, and upon assessing the condition Mariam was in, the clinic in Tujur felt they couldn’t give her the extensive treatment she needed. They advised she be taken to Mother of Mercy Hospital as quickly as she could get there.
Mother of Mercy is a Sudan Relief Fund supported hospital directed by missionary doctor Tom Catena, who helped found the facility and served as its only surgeon for more than a decade. The hospital serves a massive area, being the only one of its kind for hundreds of miles, and it offers treatment that can’t be found anywhere else in the Nuba Mountains.
When Dr. Tom saw Mariam arrive, he knew she needed immediate intervention to save her life. At this point, Mariam had regained consciousness and was vomiting up blood. In her dazed state of mind, she thought of her children and wondered if she would ever go home to see them again. She worried how they would be taken care of without her.
Mariam was immediately ushered to the operating room for emergency surgery. She was very fortunate no vital organ or spinal nerve had been hit by the weapon. And that she didn’t bleed to death or turn septic before she made it to Mother of Mercy Hospital.
The surgical team gave Mariam heavy doses of medicine to stop infection and ease the pain, and she required many stitches. But this mother came through her operation successfully, and with the help of Dr. Tom and his dedicated staff, she would eventually be restored to full mobility. She would go home and be able to hold her children once again.
Mariam has now fully recovered and feels well. She has nothing but effusive thanks to those who helped her, from the neighbors who got her to the only place that could save her life, to Dr. Tom and his team at Mother of Mercy Hospital. She’s grateful to each of them for her being alive today, and her wish is that “God would bless them all and give them long lives.”
Mother of Mercy Hospital operates entirely on charitable donations to provide medical care in the Nuba Mountains. These stories of lives saved are possible because of compassionate donors who support the hospital’s lifesaving mission. Thank you for saving lives like Mariam’s and countless others. Because of you, the hospital treats over 75,000 patients and performs more than 2,000 surgeries every year.
Would you like to pray for us? Sign up for our email prayer group to receive weekly emails sharing important needs to pray for. You’ll join a faith community around the globe praying to bring hope and help to suffering people in a forgotten part of the world. Find out more here.
Nowhere Else to Turn
Orphanage Saves Twin Baby Boys
Sometimes numbers are too staggering to comprehend. The orphan crisis in Sudan and South Sudan is one of them.
In the nation of South Sudan alone, there are over two million displaced people. Each has a story. They came from families and villages and previous lives. Now they are without homes because of violence or disaster or tragedy.
It’s estimated that 60 percent of the displaced are children. Some of these are orphans or abandoned children. Many are separated from parents during times of chaos. Children without homes or families struggle against perilous odds to survive alone.
Without someone to take care of them, orphaned children face high risk of death by sickness or starvation. They’re in danger of human trafficking and conscription into rebel militias. Some are far too young to take care of themselves at all.
Poverty and lack of health care also contribute to the high number of orphans. As does one of the worst childbirth mortality rates in the world. South Sudan is one of the deadliest places to have a baby, with nearly 75 percent of women giving birth outside of a qualified medical facility.
Sudan Relief Fund has been fighting to turn those tragedies around, with prenatal programs, supervised maternity wards, and postnatal healthcare. We support schools that are training nurses and putting more qualified midwives into the field each year.
Twin brothers, James and John, nearly become two of those tragic statistics. It was a complicated labor for their young mother, delivering twin babies without any medical supervision. When she tragically died giving birth to her sons, there was no family to take care of her tiny infants.
These baby boys are alive today because someone brought them to Saint Bakhita Orphanage in Nzara. Without immediate care, little James and John would have died from starvation, dehydration, or exposure. Or even something worse, like suffocation in a trash bin or attacks from predators, which is a sad fate for some.
For decades Saint Bakhita Orphanage has saved children with nowhere else to go. Sister Bianca Bii, founder and longtime matriarch, has raised hundreds of children through the years. Her dedication to children is legendary, and none have ever been turned away.
Currently more than 250 orphaned children call Saint Bakhita their home. These children do not have to try desperately to survive on the streets. Thanks to partners and donor support, they have a new facility to live in, with boys’ and girls’ dorms, a kitchen and large gathering area for meals, restrooms, clean water sources, and housing for the staff necessary to look after so many young children.
Orphans who make it to Saint Bakhita Orphanage are the lucky ones. They have access to health care at nearby St. Theresa Hospital, a Sudan Relief Fund sponsored facility. They have the coveted chance to go to school to gain skills for an independent and brighter future. Being at Saint Bakhita literally transforms their lives. Thank you for making this possible for tiny babies like James and John, and so many other children who now have a place to call home.
These stories of Lives Saved are made possible because of the compassion and support of generous donors. Thank you for saving lives like babies James and John, and countless others the home has helped through the years and continues to help today.
Would you like to pray for us? Sign up for our email prayer group to receive weekly emails sharing important needs to pray for. You’ll join a faith community around the globe praying to bring hope and help to suffering people in a forgotten part of the world. Find out more here.
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