An act of arson has left the historic St. Emmanuel parish church in ruins in the Akuac residential area of Rumbek Central County, Lakes State.
The incident occurred on Saturday night at 11:30 PM, leaving the local community devastated.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Lakes State Police spokesperson, Elijah Mabor Makuac, expressed his sadness over the incident.
He said, “All the members who witnessed the fire tried their level best to rescue the church, but nothing was possible.”
The police are currently conducting investigations to determine any possible motives and create a list of suspects. Makuac urged the public to cooperate with the authorities to help in apprehending the perpetrators.
He said, “Now, our security personnel are still conducting preliminary investigations. We urge the general public in Lakes State to cooperate with the police to help in ongoing investigations and in apprehending the perpetrator. We are asking you to cooperate with us and help us to detect this person in the community.”
The destruction of the church was witnessed by Paulo Maluaal Akec, a member of St. Emmanuel parish, who stated, “What happened according to what I heard is that somebody came at night at 11:30 PM and that person burnt down the church.”
Akec revealed that this was the second time the church had been targeted, with a previous fire incident occurring earlier, which was fortunately salvaged by the congregation and neighbours.
Another member of the church, Angelina Awur Apollo, expressed her shock over the incident, saying, “Someone came and burnt down this church and ran away. His intentions about this church are not known, only God knows.”
The High Deacon, Gabriel Majok Mayom, emphasized that despite the material loss, the church is ultimately about its people, stating, “The little I want to add as a Christian is that the church is not a structure, the church is the people. But, people who pray inside the church are the church. That particular person responsible for burning down the church did not only burn the Christian church, but he also burnt grass and equipment inside the church.”
Mayom urged forgiveness for the perpetrator and called for support to rebuild the church and replace the lost items. He said, “We don’t have chairs and we don’t have other materials and things which we were using during the previous were all burnt down with the church. We had five (5) air fans, microphones, decorations as well as other items for the church which have burnt to ashes.”
He shared that the church community did not report the incident to the police, trusting that God would ultimately bring justice and forgiveness. “Because of our faith, we did not report to any police station to register a case about the burning of the church,” he said.
Mayom expressed his hope for the perpetrator to repent, saying, “My message to South Sudanese is that we are requesting prayers. Let that person who burnt down the church repent for what he did. He did not do it to the people but he did it to God and God will forgive him, and we are requesting prayers so that God helps us and forgives us always.”