The Evangelical Revival Organization (ERO) – a faith-based group in Juba, says it is shameful to see South Sudan at war with itself after attaining independence from Sudan through the help of the international community.  Daria Kwaje, a member of the Organization questioned the wisdom behind the on-going conflict in the country.

“It is even shameful to see the international community seeing us fighting. First of all we fought Khartoum wanting to be alone as Southerners and the international community helped us attend this, so why fight again?”

Kwaje appealed to the government to expedite the deployment of the Regional Protection Force.

“The government should speed up the deployment of the 4,000-troop strong Regional Protection Force.  We learned that UNMISS has only 13,000 troops in South Sudan. This number is not enough to protect civilians in the whole country… Those who are suffering are the civilians who have no guns in their hands.”

She said the conflict caused untold suffering to them as mothers.

“Taking care of children is left to us mothers. We run with them to the forest when there is conflict, we spend days without food, our children don’t go to school and they are going to lose their education. This pains us a lot as mothers and we are not happy.”

She appealed to the warring parties to compromise instead of insisting on solving the South Sudan crisis by violent means.

“We really need peace. We are looking for peace and we are responsible for this peace as South Sudanese”, says Caesarina Goro Yata, another member of ERO.