By Paola Moggi, cms – Sud Sudan
Juba, South Sudan. August 7, 2024. They have arrived today, with their load of suitcases and pain.
They are four Missionaries of Charity coming for El Obeid, in the Sudan: sister Sutri, from Bangladesh, sister Lily Grace, from Rwanda, sister Eucharistia, from Egypt, and sister Salima, from South Sudan. In the past two years, two of them have been working in the health centre and two in a school with accelerating learning programs for youth who had missed the primary school.
«We remain»
The Sudan civil war, started on April 15 2023, had a heavy toll in the Capital Khartoum, but also the town of El Obeid was not spared: the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), i.e. the paramilitary militias which battle the Sudan military Government, assaulted the airport and the military headquarter, but were repelled by the Sudan Army. They could not take control of the town, but remained around it.
Inside El Obeid life could continue, though threatened by occasional shelling and sporadic attacks. Electricity and running water were discontinued and schools were closed, but the Missionaries of Charity could continue their service to the people in need of care and to the children who were no longer in school but could continue the formative programs in the parish. Three Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ), two Sacred Heart Sisters and the four Missionaries of Charity had decided to remain, despite mounting insecurity.
The siege of El Obeid
On April 21 2024 the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) mounted a new attack to the town; again they were repelled by the Sudan Army but intensified the siege: by June 30 the people in El Obeid had little water, while food and fuel shortage had become unbearable: those who could, decided to flee. The poorest, instead, had no other option than to remain, with bishop Trille Yunnan, two priests and one deacon.
Obedience asked the Missionaries of Charity and the other religious to leave for Kosti, a town in the East about 300 kilometres from El Obeid: soon the siege would force the town to surrender and, after the RSF had taken control of key centres (El Fasher and El Fula) and of strategic roads, the chance to find refuge elsewhere was vanishing.
Back in 1882, the town of El Obeid had been for months under siege by the Mahdist forces: that time the missionaries had failed to leave before the garrison surrendered, and the consequences for them had been tragic. History teaches.
A miraculous journey
Accompanied by two expert drivers, on June 20 2024 the Comboni Missionaries, the Sacred Heart Sisters and the Missionaries of Charity took the way of the desert to avoid the RSF roadblocks.
For 15 hours they travelled without meeting anybody, but when they reached a swampy area near Ed Dueim, the water caused the engine to stop, and it could not be repaired until the morning of June 22. Finally, that day in the afternoon they reach Kosti, but even that town was not safe: the shooting was getting nearer. The drivers went back, while the sisters managed to pass the border with South Sudan and reach Renk, a town where many Sudanese refugees stop over. There the four Miassionaries of Charity could start to relax, and on August 7 they were airlifted from Renk to Juba: hosted in the house of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, they could finally feel safe.
Waiting to go back
«For me it has been too painful to leave the people in that situation», says sr. Lily Grace who had been in El Obeid for almost 2 years. Sr. Eucharistia, who had lived there for seven years, adds: «For me to leave has been an act of faith. I would have preferred to remain in El Obeid, but I believe that obedience brings fruitfulness, for me and for the people. Now for us is time to reconnect with the other Missionaries of Charity and to regain energy. We continue to pray for peace in the Sudan, and then we hope to go back».