Highly-respected South Sudanese Catholic Bishop Paride Taban dies in Nairobi

JUBA, NOV. 1, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s highly-respected Catholic Bishop Paride Taban who is renowned for his peace activism in the world’s youngest country died on Wednesday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi aged 87.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Sudan/South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference said the cleric passed away while on hospitalization.

“The Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Church in South Sudan and Sudan would like to announce the return of our dear Bishop Paride Taban which occurred this afternoon 1st November 2023 in Nairobi,” said the statement.

“He has been unwell for some time and the Good Shepherd called him on the Solemnity of All the Saints. The news is sudden, and you will be updated with upcoming arrangements,” it added.

Born in Opari of Eastern Equatoria State, Bishop Taban served as the first leader of the New Sudan Council of Churches, from 1990.

He was also the Auxiliary Bishop of Juba from January 1980 to July 1983, before becoming the Bishop of Torit, in Eastern Equatoria State, from 1983 to 2004.

He was ordained in May 1964 and consecrated a Bishop by Pope John Paul II in the Congolese capital Kinshasa in May 1980.

PEACE EFFORTS AND AWARDS

Taban started his peace efforts when he was sent to Rwanda in 1994 for reconciliation efforts following the Rwanda Genocide and following the outbreak of the civil war in South Sudan in December 2013 became renowned for his opposition to war.

In 2013, Taban was awarded the Sergio Vieira de Mello Peace Prize by the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for his work at the Holy Trinity Peace Village.

He also won the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in 2017 after co-founding the ecumenical New Sudan Council of Churches and for building Kuron Peace Village in South Sudan.

He was also awarded the prize for mediating between President Salva Kiir’s government and the defunct South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army (SSDM/A) Cobra faction led by then rebel leader General David Yau Yau.

These efforts led to the signing of the peace agreement between Kiir and Yau Yau ending four years of a deadly conflict that started in 2010 over election disputes in Jonglei State.

In 2016, he was appointed by Kiir as a co-chair of the steering committee of National Dialogue and in 2017 received the peace award of the United Religious Initiatives for Africa.

A year later in 2018, he received the Four Freedoms Award, freedom of Worship medal from the Roosevelt Foundation for “his life-long and selfless dedication to the cause of bringing freedom and peace to the people of South Sudan.”