From ENS-Samuel Enosa Peni, bishop of the Diocese of Nzara in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, is the deputy chairman of an interfaith group of religious leaders from South Sudan, Uganda, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The group, led by the Catholic archbishop of Kinsangani in the DRC, is working to end the violence caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
For Peni, the threat posed by the LRA is real. When he became bishop in 2010, thirty-three of his parishes—a quarter of the total—were closed after people fled their rural villages because of violence caused by the LRA. The LRA came into existence in the late 1980s as part of a civil war in northern Uganda, but has since transformed into a rebel army with a reputation for particular brutality.
Shortly after Peni moved to Nzara from nearby Yambio to become bishop, the LRA killed two families in a village close to Nzara. Peni remembers hearing the news in his new home. With the diocesan secretary, he decided to go to where the bodies were being kept, and where many people had begun to gather. As he got out of the car, he remembers, “I could hear people whispering, ‘Oh, he is the new bishop.’ The secretary motioned the people to stop wailing and listen. Then I had to give a message of encouragement, of comfort. I had to cry with them.” Since that time, he has had success in encouraging people to return to their villages and resume their lives of subsistence agriculture. This, in turn, lessens their dependence on international assistance.
More here-
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/09/16/in-sudan-anglican-bishop-works-to-end-lra-militia-violence/
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