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The joint ACT Alliance-Caritas Internationalis response to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur remains a powerful witness to the Christian unity possible in diakonia.

Churches continue to play their role in peace building for South Sudan despite the dashed hopes of many in the world’s newest nation, the moderator of the WCC said at a regional meeting.

Two ecumenical councils in South Sudan and Sudan have now been established. The decision comes after South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011 following a referendum mandated by the 2005 peace pact that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.

South Sudan president Salva Kiir Mayardit emphasized the strong potential of churches in helping to develop their new country. His comments came during a conversation with the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, who on Friday, 25 April visited the capital city, Juba, where he met with staff and members of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC).

In his meeting with the Sudanese minister Alfatih T. Abdallah, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit stressed the important role of Sudanese churches in rebuilding their nation after years of conflict, along with the assurance of their religious freedoms.

South Sudan achieves its independence on Saturday 9 July 2011, and the new president has received congratulations and an assurance of continued solidarity from the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). In a letter dated 7 July on behalf of the WCC, Tveit extended to the president of the Republic of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, “our prayers and very best wishes for the bright and peaceful future of your country and people.”

Escalating violence against civilians in Sudan’s disputed South Kordofan State is leading to major humanitarian catastrophe with an estimated 300,000 people besieged, cut off from relief aid, and unable to escape fighting, according to a number of aid agencies and witnesses in the region.

Based on a candid assessment of how two decades of war have affected them, Sudanese youth told church leaders what they need most: skills training, jobs and means of participating in shaping their country's future. Sudanese women, in turn, spoke out about their vulnerability, increased by war and cultural patterns.

"We remain committed to work side by side with the churches", the president of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit told representatives of an international ecumenical delegation in Juba, Southern Sudan, on 3 April 2008.

Sudanese churches stand at a crossroads, said the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia. On the one hand, they face a transition from liberation fight to rebuilding their homes and communities. On the other, they live in a country where Islam and Christianity cross paths and the relationship between the two is vital.

By Juan Michel (*)

Amid ongoing fighting and humanitarian crises in several regions of Sudan, and risks of failure in implementing the 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war between north and south, the Sudanese people and churches face "tremendous tasks and challenges", an international ecumenical team of church representatives was told at the beginning of an eight-day solidarity visit to the country.

An international ecumenical team of church representatives will pay a solidarity visit to churches and ecumenical organizations in Sudan from 26 March to 2 April. The team led by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will split in four groups to visit Darfur, Khartoum, Rumbek and Yambio before joining Sudanese church leaders, women and youth for a three-day conference in Juba.