Uganda religious leaders visit South Sudan’s fighting parties for talks

Ugandan religious leaders under the umbrella Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative meeting some rebel commanders, in South Sudan’s Torit state. Picture by courtesy of Reverend Patrick Loum| 16 May 2019

After going through their own dark days of insurgencies of Lord’s Resistance Army led by notorious Joseph Kony for two decades, religious leaders of Northern Uganda are using their experiences of inter-community mediation to help neighboring South Sudan attain total peace. Under the umbrella of Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI,) the leaders come from Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Seventh Day Adventist and Pentecostal church as well as Muslim community in the region. These leaders; mostly elderly, have just concluded a visit to embattled South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria part for talks with some of the fighting parties. They want the fighters to stop the on-going violence. Jackson Kitara has the story.