_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Sudan_______________
Bishop in new call for help
Thousands facing starvation
Bishop Cezare Mazzolari of Rumbek, Sudan, has made an urgent appeal for help for thousands of desperate people in his diocese. He said the situation in Western Bahr al-Ghazal is “very desperate,” and that 57,000 people had been displaced by intense military activity. “My first appeal is for food to be dropped at Raga to help attract the desperate civilians now scattered in the surrounding areas to return to their homes,” Bishop Mazzolari said. He continued:
I have seen the place and can confirm that there is so much suffering. I appeal to all people of goodwill to seize the earliest opportunity to help save as many lives as possible. The Church has left a team of personnel on the ground to run our very small and run-down dispensary and we appeal for assistance to help beef up our medical and relief activities.”
The bishop added that the diocese would provide temporary accommodations for any aid agency willing to help. Bishop Mazzolari said he was afraid many of the people heading north out of Raga, including many children, could die of hunger and thirst in the largely desert area.
Rebels in the mainly Christian south have been waging a civil war with the Islamic government in the north of the African country for two decades, leaving more than a million dead. Now that Raga has been captured by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the Khartoum government has bombed the town several times.
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