ICC Note:

“If you ran, you got shot.” Christians fleeing from a Uganda refugee camp were caught in between a battle between South Sudanese government soldiers and rebel militias, according to Reuters reports. In the Southeast corner of South Sudan, a small village housed the Church of Christ, a preacher training school and a medical clinic overseen by The Sudan Project. However, many church members were forced to leave after Rebels overtook the village, forcibly recruiting males age 15 and up into their army, and the Sudanese government attacked on Monday of this week. 

04/06/2017 South Sudan (Christian Chronicle) – “If you ran, you got shot.”

That’s how a South Sudanese man described the terror that overtook the village of Pajok Monday, as government soldiers clashed with rebel militias, Reuters reports.

The village, in the southeast corner of the world’s newest nation, is home to a Church of Christ, a preacher training school and a medical clinic overseen by The Sudan Project, a ministry of the Mt. Juliet Church of Christ in Tennessee.

Many of the church members in Pajok fled months ago to refugee camps in Uganda — the same camps where they became Christians during Sudan’s long civil war that ended with South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

In July, after clashes between government forces and rebels loyal to the country’s ousted vice president, rebel soldiers took control of Pajok, also known as Parajok, and nearby communities — and forcibly recruited males age 15 and up into their army, said Don Humphrey, The Sudan Project’s director.

As Christians fled to refugee camps, the ministry temporarily closed the preacher-training program but left the clinic open.

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