At the end of September 2020, another clash happened between the two parties in South Sudan. Residents of the camps in Corijo, Andejo, and Moroto, were attacked. The shooting lasted from 4 am to noon. About 3 thousand people were panicking and ran to the border of Uganda. Most of them were women, old people, and children. Many fled their houses without clothes and food to hide in the nearby forests. When they reached the border, the police did not want to let refugees into the country out of fear that they are carriers of Covid19.
The Ugandan government and the UN Commissioner for Refugees visited a new camp, but it did not seem they received any help. We sent a team to this district and they reported that children are crying from hunger, people don’t sleep at night because of the mosquitoes. We bought ten tons of food and other items and rushed to deliver it to the north of the country. It was accepted with great joy.
People were standing for hours to get beans, flour, and soap. Despite all hardships they experienced, they were singing songs praising God for the support. On behalf of all churches in the Baptist association in Mijale, I want to express a big thank you for the support. May the Lord bless you and reward your participation. With a prayer for all of you…
Let me share with you some of the challenges faced by
pastors in refugee camps in northern Uganda and South Sudan. Most South
Sudanese are less educated and do not work in refugee camps. They were forced
to leave their land where they grew their food. The civil war in the country
made economic development impossible. Recently, the government of South Sudan
declared complete bankruptcy, including the central bank. They lost the inability
to control the pricing market in the country. Now the prices of the most
essential foodstuffs rise daily.
Now, due to quarantine, many families cannot feed
themselves. This week alone, I received over a hundred calls from refugee camps
asking for help with food and other basic necessities. One pastor named Godfrey
Lozo from Nimule in South Sudan said: “Listen, Pastor Dima, cornmeal is the
only thing I have left is, my family is starving to death.”
I don’t know what to do in such a situation. Many times, I
tried to hide, not to answer phone calls, so as not to hear stories about hunger
and death. But as soon as I turn on the phone, thousands of people call me
asking for help. As a pastor, I decided not to turn off the phone anymore,
because these are my brothers and sisters. Pray with me for this daily struggle
so that I can be steadfast. Pray that God will provide us during this difficult
time. Pray for refugees from South Sudan and others who have the same need for
their daily bread. Pray for peace for the people of South Sudan. We have
suffered enough and are tired of wandering. Help us!
I would like to thank New Fields Ministries and all the
Slavic Baptist churches in the United States for supporting our churches in the
refugee camps. We bought several tons of food for $8,000. We delivered the food
to the camps in the Ajumani district in northern Uganda at the end of August.
From there the food and other goods will be distributed to 22 local churches.
Praise the Lord for your love and support!
The Lord blessed our family with three biological children and one adopted boy, Kennedy 20, Joel 13, carol 9 and Kayla 6. The lord has been merciful to us since our wedding in 2005.
Together with my wife rose and the children, we fled to Uganda in January 2017. At that time, troops were already stationed in our city of Kajo-Keji. Technically, Uganda has been our home since birth, because the military conflicts in South Sudan have not stopped. The first time I fled to Uganda was with my parents when I was a child, and then we returned in 1977. We fled to Uganda again in 1983 and lived there until 2005.
The quarantine announced on March 19, 2020, took us by surprise. Rose and I were in northern Uganda when the school called us and asked to pick up the children. We had to travel 11 hours to Kampala driving the bus which took us all night. On March 20, we took our children, and the country was locked up. Unfortunately, we had no money to buy food and no coal to cook our meals. The stores were all closed, and we did not leave the house for a whole month.
When we ran out of food, we gathered all remaining funds and I went to the market in Kampala. I had to walk 7 hours to buy at least something for the children. When new fields heard about our situation, they purchased a motorcycle. Thank you for your help in purchasing it. A motorcycle is the only vehicle allowed during the quarantine. When we received funds to support the family, it was a day of jubilation. We bought chicken and Irish potatoes, and the children sang joyful songs to the Lord. Thank you for being our friends!
On 14-16 July 2020, a fierce fight broke out between
numerous tribes in the South Sudan refugee camps in the Obongi area. As a
result of the fights, three people were killed, and several dozen people were
injured.
The cause of the conflict was the lack of food. A Nuer woman
was caught with stolen corn from the Kuku farm and brought before the chairman
of the refugee committee for disciplinary action. She was warned and whipped four
times. The Nuer tribe then united and beat the chairman of the refugee
committee. He was taken to a hospital, and the men began to set fire to houses
and wounded a man from the Kuku tribe with a knife. Then the Kuku youth
mobilized a group of people when the heard of this incident.
The conflict between the two factions lasted two days; in
total, over a hundred houses were burned down and 3 people killed. Two
communities were also affected. They are left homeless and without food. Today,
peace has returned to the refugee camp. We have one church in the area, and we
pray that God will touch the hearts of the refugees so that the victims can be
reconciled with each other. We pray that
God will provide shelter for the congregation and that everyone will have
plenty of food for their families! Thank you for your participation in our
grief during this difficult time.
I am writing to you because from the first day until now you have not stopped praying for refugee camps in northern Uganda and in South Sudan. In connection with the coronavirus epidemic, life in refugee camps has become even harder. Especially due to food shortages. We see that the best way to eradicate hunger in camps is to encourage refugees to cultivate fields and grow their own food.
If there will be enough rain and tools for farming, I am
sure that refugees will be able to provide for themselves. We plan to lease 3
large pieces of land located near the camps, which will allow impoverished and
desperate people to cultivate the land and feed their families.
We plan to rent 30 acres of land in northern Uganda in the areas of Moyo, Obongi, and Ajumani. The cost of 30 acres is $ 800 per year. The land must be cleared and plowed by tractors. We want to purchase seeds and tools for cultivating the land. We ask you to participate in this project. Given the unforeseen costs, we need to collect from 1700 – 2000 dollars for each of the three camps.
Our goal is to give refugees the opportunity to work in groups or associations. Work in families and communities. Thus, they will no longer wait to be fed but will be able to process and eat from their fields themselves. We ask you to pray for rain and the blessings of this project!
