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A legend of the Dinka and Nuer
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tells how when God asked them
to choose cattle or guns,
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they chose cattle,
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while the Arabs and Westerners
went for the guns.
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But for decades now, guns
and cattle have lived together
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in this land
which, since 2013,
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has endured a bloody civil war
between these two ethnic groups.
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The situation is really bad
and it's getting worse.
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Currently,
about 50,000 people a month,
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are leaving
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and there are
about 1.6 million people
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living outside of the country.
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Inside the country, nearly
two million people are displaced.
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The rainy season has arrived.
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The ground becomes fertile,
but because of the civil war
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tens of thousands of people
cannot work the fields,
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and so have no food.
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The emergency is being dealt
with by the United Nations
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and dozens
of international organisations.
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I'm encouraging
the leadership here
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to grant greater access
in the conflict.
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If we're in the conflict,
then we have enough funds
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to achieve the objectives
and feed the people.
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But with the conflict as it is...
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Now the rainy season
is coming upon us,
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and that means we have
a much more difficult job,
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prepositioning food,
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and so our teams
have been prepositioning food
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in the very difficult areas
you can't get to
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once the rainy season hits in.
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As they are providing
direct assistance...
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..food aid to the population
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in the areas under conflict,
basically,
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we do complementary work
based in other areas,
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that are not exactly
under the acute conflict.
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An enormous task this,
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rendered difficult by the fighting
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and the lack of dialogue
between the opposing sides.
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But that still begs
the question of lack of funding
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that we need
for the remainder of the year.
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And that could be
a catastrophic situation.
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Famine's already been declared
in two counties.
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We are on the brink of famine
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in many other locations
in this country,
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and many people,
five million people,
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already are looking for food
on a daily basis.
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But the local leadership,
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that governed
by President Salva Kiir Mayardit,
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is not interested in the appeals
of the United Nations.
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On 18 March,
the feast of the SPLA,
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the
Liberation Army,
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Salva Kiir used words of fire
against his opponents.
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In the last three years...
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..we have seen
how the forces of evil
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have tried
to bring down our country.
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They are bent
on trying to rewrite history
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and drive the wedge
among our people.
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They have even gone as far as
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portraying our historical army,
the national army,
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as an ethnic army.
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However,
we are all surely aware
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that our military is comprised
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of all South Sudanese,
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of whatever ethnic group
in the country.
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This is what remains
of the Terrain hotel,
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the compound
attacked on
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by about 100 Government soldiers.
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Doors torn off, bullet holes
everywhere, broken windows,
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that render the idea
of what happened
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during the three hours of terror
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that saw the soldiers
savage men and women.
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Gang rapes,
injuries and torture,
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a journalist
killed in cold blood.
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Yeah, before the eyes of...
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Because it has been reported...
Let me just correct,
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it has been reported
by UN agencies
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that they have spotted
"people in uniform"
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raping women
around the UN compound.
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We are in uniform,
the UN army is in uniform.
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So it is not specific
in this case.
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But otherwise all of us
need to be investigated.
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But one thing is that UNMISS has
a mandate to protect or assist
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the Government of
to protect its citizens.
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What was their role
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when they were witnessing
"people in uniform"
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raping women
around their facility?
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Did they take any measures?
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In criminal procedure,
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if you are seeing a crime
happening before your eyes
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and you have a mandate
and you don't intervene,
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then you are part of the crime.
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So this is what is happening.
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I call it the Titanic situation.
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When the Titanic hit the iceberg,
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where was the crew?
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One was working
on a broken chair,
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one was fixing a leaky faucet,
one was fixing a leaking toilet,
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one was cleaning
the countertop...
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nobody was focused on
where the ship was going,
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and right now
we are all hands on deck
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with the four famines, possibly
serious financial cutbacks...
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So we're trying to make sure
we don't hit the iceberg.
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In the meantime I've got teams
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beginning to work
on these questions,
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because we know
that we go into very risky areas
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all over the world,
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but we need
to minimise that risk
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for the safety of our teams,
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and, two, for the protection of
these very valuable commodities
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like the one
you're just talking about, so...
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Well,
I think it is very unfortunate
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that our president
does not listen,
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our president does not cooperate
with his own citizens.
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Much of the displacement,
killing, destruction
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it is truly done by the SPLA,
the army of the Government,
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and it is the Government
who is responsible,
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not the evil forces.
There is no evil forces,
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and I want to assure you
there is no evil forces.
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It is the mentality
of the president,
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it is the mentality
of the ruling party,
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it is the mentality of the SPLA,
SPLM who created this mess.
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The same day
when we were praying
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they killed a pastor
of the Episcopal Church in Yei,
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they killed a pastor!
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The same harsh words
come from the leaders
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of the Episcopal Church
of
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who, through the Bishop of Yei,
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tell us what is happening
outside
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July 2016,
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the crisis arrived in Yei,
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and in a very serious,
negative way.
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It pushed out people from Yei,
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because there were
a lot of threats,
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and there was
a lot of rumour going on
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of an imminent big war
which was going to happen in Yei,
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and this made the people of Yei
leave the town.
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And actually incidents
of killing took place in Yei.
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People were shot in town,
everybody knew this,
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it was not a secret,
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even the Government
was aware of this thing,
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we have raised this
to the Government,
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that people
were being killed in Yei
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within that period of July,
when the crisis started in July.
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It was a very serious situation,
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there was a dire need
for security.
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There was no security in Yei.
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All these declarations
find confirmation in the words
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of refugees in different camps
around the capital.
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This is POC 3,
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inside which
more 42,000 people live
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in terrible hygienic conditions.
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You couldn't stay there.
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The soldiers were shooting
and the rebels firing back,
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and we were stuck in the middle.
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I took what I could
and escaped with my children.
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I came with my two brothers.
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On the way they stopped the car
and have taken my two brothers,
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however I don't know up to now
where they have taken them.
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So I reached
I have nowhere to go.
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Somebody told me there's a church
here that can help people.
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Now I'm just alone
with my three children.
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Bodies covered in rags,
misery everywhere, flies,
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fires on which they cook grass
torn from the fields.
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And anywhere at all
will do to rebuild
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the semblance of a village
and an apparently normal life,
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like these refugees
from the north, from Tarakeka,
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who live among the tombs
of a cemetery,
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like a horror film,
where horror has become reality.
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Families continue
to experience shocks,
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they are not just displaced
once,
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they are displaced
multiple times
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and affected by violence
over and over again.
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In Yei also...
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..the last three days
also there are fights there.
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Terrible fighting whereby
they kill a lot of people.
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My family
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has had four brothers
who have been killed.
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We manage psychosocial
support programmes
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which are very community-based,
community-focused.
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We are focused less on trauma
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and more on enabling communities
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to rebuild the social fabrics
they have seen torn apart.
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We adjust
to a very different life,
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suddenly living
in a very crowded POC site,
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when that wasn't their lives
before,
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with strangers,
people you don't know,
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maybe you lost your spouse,
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your children aren't in school,
you're not sure of their future,
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and enabling people to help
each other in a safe environment.
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When children are malnourished,
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the problem is that
they don't then develop normally.
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A normal child is active,
they sing, they move...
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a malnourished baby sits still,
not moving,
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and so doesn't develop mentally.
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They can grow up
to be a child with problems.
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So the baby
is severely malnourished.
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The South Sudanese Churches,
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to deal with the emergency
and stop the war,
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decided to work together
to provide an ecumenical answer,
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and they also drew up proposals
for a peace plan.
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We as churches,
as Council of Churches
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are involved in this undertaking
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through the action plan
for peace,
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an action to bring about peace
which has three chapters.
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The first is advocacy,
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how to talk
to the South Sudanese people
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to change the notion they have
of vendetta and violence
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into a notion of peace.
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Then we have level number 2,
the Neutral Forum, a free space
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where the
can have a dialogue.
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Today we're scared
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that what I say, however true,
will cost me my life.
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Now, when we as churches
came together
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with the Catholic Church,
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my brother bishop Erkolano,
the Catholic Church bishop,
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myself and another bishop
of another church,
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we came up with a plan
of putting the churches together,
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instead of being
different denominations,
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to give the deliverance
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of speaking out as one voice
to the world.
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And then we formed our committee
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which is Yei Ecumenical
Emergency Relief Committee,
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and now we came up
with an appeal to the world,
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to UN agencies,
international organisations.
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The third level
is that of reconciliation,
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which is very hard and complicated
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because we have all suffered.
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We as a church, through dialogue
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in the outskirts, the villages,
the cities of
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to reach a common position.
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There are lots of differences,
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but there's something
which unites
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the country called
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We are all South Sudanese!
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Stopping the call of blood,
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stopping the hatred
that pushes human beings
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to hurt their neighbour
because they are different.