Church leaders brace for Christmas violence in central Africa

December 21, 2010

Church leaders in Africa are warning about the prospect of violence from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has been charged with multiple crimes against humanity in attacks on civilians in Uganda, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.

“We fear attacks both during the Christmas period and in early January, when a referendum on the independence of southern Sudan is to be held,” said Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambo, southern Sudan

At Christmas time in 2008, in a series of attacks in some villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, LRA guerrillas killed about 900 people and abducted another 700.

 

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Further information:

• “We fear LRA massacres at Christmas and during the referendum in January" (Fides)