Church leaders in Sudan call for end to war

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Citing “heinous experiences of human suffering,” Episcopal and Roman Catholic church leaders in Sudan have issued an appeal calling for an end to the country’s 18-year-old civil war.

“A negotiated settlement, rather than military means, is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace,” declared the bishops of the Catholic and Episcopal churches of the Sudan in a letter addressed to Pope John Paul II, the government of Sudan, opposition groups in the country and other religious and political figures.

More than 2 million people have died fighting and in war-related famine in Sudan since 1983 when fighting erupted between the Arab Islamic government in the north and autonomy-seeking groups in the mainly animist and Christian south.