The Catholic Church in South Sudan on Friday decried the economic hardship in the country with civil servants going unpaid for over a year as the country prepares for Christmas and New Year festivities.
Addressing a press conference in Juba, Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Juba, described the South Sudanese people’s situation as “desperate, and all the people are stressed.”
“It is important for us to all rally together and to talk about this because we cannot stay for 12 months without salary and we expect that people will survive but because the people of South Sudan are resilient, they can survive until today,” the Cardinal said.
“We have already appealed, asked the government several times, twice this year, as a body, a bishop’s conference, we have asked them to give salary to the workers but also as an ecumenical body, we have also said the salary of the civil servants should be given so our complaint is there.”
“I hope that this complaint will not reach deaf ears, but open ears so that they hear us as people of God because we are concerned about the situation and how our people are surviving,” he added.
The prelate said the church wants the government to plan strategically on how to sustain itself.
“The government cannot be sustained with just a little collection but it has to plan and the finance minister is there to plan with other people in the economic cluster. They need to talk about where the money is going. Where are the taxes we pay going?” he asked.
“We need the taxes to be given to people. That is the only thing I can say about this situation of hunger and other things but we hope that 2025 will be a better year because of the Tumaini Initiative.”
Ameyu expressed optimism that the Tumaini Peace Initiative will bring a lasting peace and urged South Sudanese to back it.
“I believe that Tumaini will be a comprehensive peace because it will answer many of our questions and I appeal to is that all South Sudanese to jump on the ship of Tumaini so that whatever we agree there will be a final peace,” Ameyu said.
The Cardinal also condemned a shooting incident in Kworjik in Central Equatoria State on 18 December that resulted in the death of a civilian, injury of another, and brief arrest of a priest.
“On the night of 18 December, there was a shooting incident in Kworijik in which people one person was wounded and one killed and there was a lot of violence after that,” he said. “Some people also came and beat people in the Kworjik. Father Pitia was arrested by some police and was detained for some hours, but he was released yesterday.