"I need the permission to avoid unnecessary suspicion at various
checkpoints that I will have to encounter", said His Exc. Mgr. Erkolano
Lodu Tombe, Bishop of Yei in South Sudan, to Radio Easter, explaining
that he has called on the government to allow him to travel to the
jungle to dialogue with rebel fighters in order to try to mediate in the
civil war. "The Church is not a spy for any party and its interest in going to seek the rebel fighters is only to make sure that the fighting stops", said the Bishop.
Local political administrators have already approved the Bishop’s request but the Yei State Information Minister, Stephen Lado Onesimo, said the state government is still waiting for a response and clearance from the national government of South Sudan.
In Yei, a city in Equatoria, in South Sudan, a wave of murders and massacres attributed to mixed military-civilian armed groups have hit the alleged supporters of former Vice President Riek Machar in recent months.
The massacres have been repeatedly denounced by Mgr. Tombe.