Ethiopia - Passion Week

27 April 2016

(ANS - Pugnido) - The massacre that took place on April 15 on the border between South Sudan and Ethiopia is a deep wound for the local population. 208 people were killed and more than 100 children abducted, not to mention the pillage of about 2000 cows, in a world where pastoralism is the main source of livelihood. Fr Filippo Perin, a Salesian missionary in Pugnido in the Gambella region, not far from the site of the massacre, said: "We are concluding Lent, we have got to Palm Sunday and we are beginning the week of the Passion ... We are living three days of mourning in Gambella region for what has happened."

According to the Ethiopian authorities members of the South Sudanese Murle tribe attacked the village of Jikawo in the Gambella region inhabited by people of the Nuer tribe.  More than one hundred of them arrived before dawn, surrounding some villages. The Army from the nearest centre, Lare, and then from Gambella intervened as soon as possible, but most of the attackers managed to escape. The affected area is one that has often been contested between various communities and pastoralists. There had been numerous violent clashes in previous years.

The Interior Minister came to Gambella "to be close to the people and to try to recover especially the abducted children," says Fr Perin.

The authorities of South Sudan and Ethiopia are organizing efforts to recover the children and arrest the perpetrators of the massacre. "They say that there have been initial contacts at least to get back the children," the missionary said, adding that these days they try to maintain "closeness with the Nuer ethnic group".

"Our thoughts go to those people who were killed, I was six years in that area and I went several times to the village of Jikawo to see if we could build a church. We saw that it was too close to the river so we moved to Biro MITOL and finally Nib Nib, where we used to go for catechism, and where I have many friends. I hope they are still alive but I have no news of them,” he concludes.

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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