Kenyan Bishop hosting South Sudan refugees calls for lasting peace

Rose Achiego – Nairobi, Kenya

Last Month, Pope Francis pleaded with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, and Opposition leaders, during a spiritual retreat in the Vatican.  He urged them to work together and seek lasting peace in their country.

Diocese of Lodwar is hosting over 200 000 South Sudanese refugees

“I hope that Pope’s kissing of South Sudanese leaders’ feet will bring peace in that nation. We are hosting over 200,000 refugees in Kakuma from South Sudan, and now a (new) settlement camp is being opened meaning there is continued conflict,” he said.

Bishop Kimengich was speaking during the celebration of Holy Mass to mark the opening of the 6th annual Inter-Diocesan conference on cross-border peace and evangelisation that officially started on 14 May 2019 at St. Theresa Pastoral Centre in Lodwar.

Inter-diocesan conference seeks to promote peace joint cross-border programmes

The conference aims at promoting cross border peace and reconciliation towards peaceful co-existence among neighbouring communities and joint cross-border programmes that improve the socio-economic conditions of the nomadic communities in the region.

Participants at the meeting include Bishop Virgilio Pante, I.M.C. of Kenya’s Maralal Diocese. Bishop Pante is also the Chairperson for the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) – Commission for Refugees Seafarers and Migrants. Others at the meeting are representatives from the Episcopal Conference, KCCB; the regional Bishops secretariat, AMECEA; dignitaries from the national governments of Kenya,South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia; ; as well as Government officials from these neighboring countries; local and international development partners, faith-based organisations and pastoralist communities of the region.