The Association of Evangelical in Africa (AEA) and all its 33 National Alliances and Fellowships in Africa, representing 180 million Evangelicals, stand in heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the ongoing crisis. A month now has come and gone, and over 4 million people have had to flee their beloved homes and country, thousands of others have perished and yet thousands upon thousands have been and are forced to endure bombings, food, water, and medicine shortages. Many are hiding under bomb shelters and some are homeless.
We stand with Ukraine not only in sympathy and empathy but because Africa has drunk the same bitter cup of strife, conflicts, wars, bloodshed, and displacement over and over again. We can imagine and feel the sorrow, pain, and difficulties faced by families forced apart by war, expectant mothers, innocent children, the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities and orphans with no place and no one to turn to, again because we have lived through the same horrors and pains.
We join the Worldwide Church and Body of Christ in condemning the war, the wanton and indiscriminate killing of civilians and non-combatants in Ukraine and wherever it occurs in the world. As part of the Global Church Family, we recognize that if one member suffers, all the body suffers, (1 Corinthians 12:26). Though happening in Ukraine, this war has consequences that reverberate around the world, that are resulting in wheat and fuel shortages and the downstream impact on national economies especially those of developing countries that are already experiencing fragility and vulnerability because of COVID 19. We have seen how this war has also raised the forbidding threats and specter of Nuclear War that may result in a global armageddon of indescribable proportions.
We, therefore, add our voice to the call to stop the bombardment of cities, the need to create humanitarian corridors for non-combatants to escape the hellish nightmare experienced in Mariupol, Kherson, Kharkiv, and other places. We call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and initiation of earnest and mutually respectful dialogue between President Putin and President Zelensky. We urge Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union together with NATO to seek solutions that will bring long-term peace and stability to the region, Europe, and the world. We urge the international community including the UN and her agencies, the Security Council, and the EU to intensify efforts of bringing peace between Russia and Ukraine.
We applaud our mother body, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), and other humanitarian agencies and individual efforts that have made life-saving and sterling contributions in bringing help, comfort, and healing to millions of people affected by the war within and outside Ukraine. We pray that these laudable responses that we have witnessed regarding the humanitarian crisis caused by the war will continue beyond the short term that we have often witnessed in conflicts of this nature, especially to and through the neighboring countries that have so far borne the brunt of the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
We Commit Ukrainian believers to God’s mercy, grace, and power. We pray that their faith will never grow weary. We stand in solidarity with the whole of Ukraine in this hour of horror and attack on its nationhood. We implore the whole church in Africa and the World to stand in prayer for and with Ukraine. May Ukraine turn herself to the Lord, where true help comes from. “Your help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth” Psalm 121:2.
You are not alone. We are praying for you and with you for peace and an end of the war on your people and your land.
AEA headquarters, Nairobi 25 March 2022
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