Violence

By Debbi DiGennaro



Beginning Saturday, Feb. 25, and continuing for three days, about 2,000 youth, armed with machetes, attacked villages in inter-ethnic violence east of the city of Kisumu, Kenya, an area where the Kenya Mennonite Church has a strong presence.

Local Mennonite Bishop Clyde Agola immediately informed Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers in Kenya of the attacks. EMM and MCC responded promptly with $3,000 of emergency aid before other humanitarian aid groups were mobilized on site.

“Before God and our communities, we are responsible to Jews for the historical and ongoing realities of anti-Semitism, to Palestinians since the Nakba, to Muslim neighbours in the light of Islamophobia, to persons who are vulnerable, and to victims of colonial conquest, among others," said participants of a World Council of Churches (WCC) sponsored conference.

"Justice-oriented interpretation of the Bible will be the nature of responsibility,” reads the statement by participants.

Anglican leaders from across Africa on 8 February made an emotional plea to Muslim faith leaders to stand with them in opposition to the "tragic violence that is destroying our communities." 



The appeal was issued at the end of a three-day meeting in Burundi of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) where Christian-Muslim conflict was high on the agenda, according to the Anglican Communion News Service. 



Methodist Archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Ibadan, Nigeria has appealed to Christian and Muslim leaders worldwide to act together in the face of extremist violence that threatens to divide Nigerians along religious lines.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty…” 1 Cor. 1:27

African clergy say the Republic of South Sudan, which gained independence on July 9, must take steps to resolve an increasingly violent conflict in the troubled border region of South Kordofan.

“If the Government of South Sudan does not sit down to address the issues raised by the militia groups, it could become a nightmare with no stability for the South,” said Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum in a recent interview with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

This robotic looking creature is actually a sculpture made up of destroyed weapons from the war of destabilization (1980's & 1990's) waged against the Mozambican government by a dissident group called Renamo. This group was funded and trained primarily by the South African military structure during the Apartheid era (although other western countries supported this war of destabilization) and internally in Mozambique had a certain very limited support.

Church leaders from across the Americas and the Caribbean are meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, to discuss the violence of racism, and the challenges it poses for churches and ecumenical organizations.

The conference is sponsored by World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Latin America Council of Churches (CLAI) and brings together people working with Afro-descendent and indigenous communities across the region.

Escalating violence against civilians in Sudan’s disputed South Kordofan State is leading to major humanitarian catastrophe with an estimated 300,000 people besieged, cut off from relief aid, and unable to escape fighting, according to a number of aid agencies and witnesses in the region.

Up to 40,000 people have fled recent fighting between Sudanese government troops and members of the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan’s oil-producing state of South Kordofan, the United Nations has said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has voiced concern over increasing violence in South Kordofan in Sudan.

There are fears that violence in the border state could unsettle South Sudan’s secession on July 9 and reverse the peace process.

More than 98 per cent of southerners voted to secede during a surprisingly peaceful referendum in January, but the contested areas of South Kordofan, Abyei and Blue Nile have seen acts of aggression by northern Sudanese forces.