The Moderator of the Church of Scotland has visited South Sudan with the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury
in 2011, many communities have suffered appalling acts of brutality carried out by rival factions and the civil unrest is compounded by consecutive years of flooding that have rotted crops, trees and bushes.
While the conflict is not rooted in religion, Dutton is hopeful that the visit of three prominent religious leaders will have a positive effect on the country which is largely Christian, with Episcopalians and Anglicans concentrated in some areas, Presbyterians in others and Roman Catholics prominent in many of the rest.
Meanwhile, other smaller groups feel they are marginalised, which has given rise to pockets of violence elsewhere in the country. “He has been cancelling a lot of trips and this is one of the more gruelling so this is clearly high in his sense of what is important,” said Dutton. “It is a great initiative. It is a visit of hope and we have to hope that hope breaks through.”SCIAF has been working with local organisations in South Sudan for more than 30 years and recently raised £1.5 million from people in Scotland to transform the lives of children with disabilities. This sum qualified for £1.
Dutton added: “When I was there, what really impressed me was that although the country is in conflict, we travelled freely and at each of the places we went, I was very impressed by the strength of civil society and the amount that ordinary people were achieving for themselves despite what else is going on in the country.
“Aid is not going to get wasted in the fighting as we and other aid agencies ensure very clear lines of accountability and responsibility to get aid through to those who need it most,” said Dutton.Conflict is not new to South Sudan as the country experienced decades of violence from the 1950s before gaining independence. Since then there have been over 400,000 deaths as a result of conflict and four million people displaced.
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