Read Female Church Workers Raped and Killed in South Sudan, by World Watch Monitor, at Christian Today.
"Scores of female church workers were massacred last month as they sought refuge at a church in the central South Sudanese town of Bor.
"The women, several of whom were elderly, had fled rebel attacks to hide in the St Andrew's Episcopal Church compound, when rebels descended on them, raping several of them before shooting them at close range.
" "The women were from different parishes in the diocese and had converged in the church compound when they were killed," the Anglican Bishop of Bor, Ruben Akurdit Ngong, told World Watch Monitor by telephone from Bor. "This is very painful. They destroyed most of the churches in the diocese, but God is with us."
"Five of the women – Dorcas Abuol Bouny and Akut Mayem Yar, both 72, Tabitha Akuang, 60, and Mary Alek Akech and Martha Agok Mabior, both 70 – worked as pastors in the church. A prominent lay leader, Agel Mabior, 72, was also killed.
" "They were all clergy. They all worked at the church. They did different jobs, [including] Bible reading," South Sudanese Anglican Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul told local reporters.
"South Sudan has been in turmoil since December 15, when a dispute within the army sparked fierce fighting in the capital city, Juba. Fighting spread quickly across the country and soon took on an ethnic dimension after President Salva Kiir alleged that his former vice-president, Riek Machar, was planning a coup."