Pope calls for end to bloodshed in Sudan, Uganda

CASTELGANDOLFO, Italy, July 25 (Reuters) – Pope John Paul on Sunday urged the international community to help put a stop to the bloody conflicts in Sudan and Uganda that have claimed thousands of lives and turned children into soldiers.

“The war (in Sudan’s Darfur region), which has intensified in these months, has brought more poverty, desperation and death,” the Pontiff told pilgrims gathered at his summer residence at Castelgandolfo, south of Rome.

“How can we remain indifferent? I appeal again to the authorities responsible and to international organisations so that they don’t forget these, our sorely tested brothers.”

The United Nations estimates at least 30,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million made homeless in the western Darfur region in what it calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Pope sent an envoy to visit the region last week and urged the international community to provide aid.

John Paul also raised the alarm over the long-running conflict in Uganda.

“For more than 18 years, northern Uganda has been torn apart by an inhuman conflict, which has involved millions of people, above all children … who, gripped by fear and deprived of any future, feel compelled to become soldiers,” he said.

The bloody 18-year conflict between government troops and the shadowy Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has left some 1.6 million homeless and countless others dead and maimed.