15 April 2013 :

Agenzia Fides reported that the Comboni Missionaries have launched a petition for the abolition of the death penalty in South Sudan, Fides Agency reported. The petition was addressed to the Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan gathered in Juba, for their General Assembly. "During the last weeks South Sudan resumed hanging prisoners on death row: at least four men were executed in Juba and one in Wau," says the text of the petition, signed by Fr. Joe Vieira, Vice Superior Provincial for South Sudan, of which a copy was sent to Fides Agency. Referring to the wish to see the death penalty abolished in Africa, contained in Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation "Africae Munus", the Comboni missionaries asked the Episcopal Conference of Sudan to invite the Head of State of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit to adopt a moratorium on executions and to submit a petition to the Commission for constitutional reform, so that the death penalty is permanently abolished by the Permanent Constitution of the Country.