Sister Mary Daniel Abut and Sister Regina Roba Luate are our martyrs because they were killed in cold blood", said Archbishop of Juba Mgr. Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla in his homily during the Funeral Mass of the two sisters of the Sacred Heart Sisters, killed, along with three other people, in a road ambush on August 16.

"These are our martyrs who will remain in our memories so that we can uplift our faith that God has given to us. Our sisters died because of their faith, their conviction that through encouraging other people to follow God, they will acquire what is the ultimate end of our lives", he stressed.

The Archbishop of Juba finally launched an invitation to conversion:
"The Grace of conversion is always there. We must convert. We must change into doing good things for ourselves in order to salvage our Church. And in order to salvage our nation, we must do good things, not killing people, not killing Sisters, not killing innocent people".

Meanwhile, new details have emerged regarding the circumstances in which the two nuns were murdered.

"The two Sisters were part of the 12 passengers (seven Sisters and five men) on a bus returning to Juba from the Centenary Celebration of Loa Catholic Parish dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption", said Sister Alice Jurugo Drajea, Superior General of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The bus that had left Loa Parish around 7:30am on the fateful day had hardly traveled for about an hour when it “ran into an ambush of armed men who opened gunfire. Suspecting that the male passengers would be the first targets of the gunmen, the driver of the bus ordered them to alight from the bus and to flee. Four Sisters also attempted to flee while three elderly Sisters remained on the bus. "The gunmen intended to burn the three Sisters in the bus. Thank God, they had neither a lighter nor petrol to start off the fire", said Sister Drajea.

While the male passengers fled into the bush alongside four Sisters, the armed men followed and shot two of the Sisters. Two male persons who were on the bus were among the dead.