After recent violence in Wau, civil society and religious organizations have expressed anger and despair at the absence of peace in South Sudan.

Fighting between government and opposition troops last week displaced around 12,000 people in Wau. Local and national committees are due to investigate the cause of violence.

“As peace makers, we are all outraged by deaths, injustice, hunger and fear that has crippled one of our largest cities” Church leaders said in a statement following the recent violence. “When will peace reign? When our people be free again to laugh and trust? For how long must we weep?”

The culture of violence among South Sudanese is increasing, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a civil society group, said in a statement this week. Headed by Edmund Yakani, the organization said that the “killing of innocent citizens because of their ethnic affiliation is increasing in South Sudan. The demand for South Sudanese to abolish the use of violence as a means of resolving their political grievance is needed,”

The clergy and CEPO urged the transitional government to conduct a credible and transparent investigation into the violence.

Yakani said that the national investigation is a “remarkable act of responsibility”, and hoped that the tendency of committees to conduct investigations without displaying their results is avoided.

Both the church and CEPO also called for urgent humanitarian assistance to Wau. Displaced are in urgent need of medicine, clean drinking water, and food.

Related:

Wau victims demand international probe into incident (30 JUN)

MSF reports gunshot wounds, rapes, mental trauma in Wau population (30 JUN)