On April 16, the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan held a charity donation event for Eid al-Fitr in Juba to provide daily necessities to local poor families through the Islamic Council of South Sudan. Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang and Secretary-General of the Islamic Council of South Sudan Al-Balaj attended the donation event and delivered speeches.
Ambassador Ma Qiang said that the Chinese Embassy extended sincere Ramadan greetings to South Sudanese Muslim friends and donated cooking oil, rice, flour and other daily necessities to express the friendship and good wishes of the Chinese people to the South Sudanese people.
Ambassador Ma pointed out that more than 20 million Islamic believers in Xinjiang and other places in China are also celebrating Eid al-Fitr. Secretary-General Balaj visited Xinjiang last year and witnessed first-hand the real situation of economic development, social stability, ethnic harmony and freedom of religious belief in the region. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are close to each other, watching and helping each other, "holding each other tightly like pomegranate seeds". The Chinese Embassy is willing to work with the South to implement the Global Civilization Initiative, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the people of South Africa, including Muslims, deepen the people-to-people ties between the two countries, and strengthen the foundation of friendship between the two countries.
Balaj thanked the embassy for its charitable donation, highly praised China for respecting the religious customs and cultural traditions of South Sudan's Muslims, and taking concrete actions to enhance the friendship between the two peoples, stressing that China is a good friend and brother of South Sudan, and the Council is willing to further strengthen cooperation with the Chinese embassy to convey the friendship of the Chinese people to all people in need.
The event was covered by South Sudan National Television, City Review, Dawn, Fiery Juba and other local mainstream media, as well as Xinhua News Agency and CGTN.