These 'heroes of love,' as Bishop Gassis calls them, have been hunted by government troops and chased from their parishes. Still they continue their evangelical work. The people of the Nuba Mountains, about one-fourth of whom are Catholic, lack adequate supplies of almost everything necessary for life, including even water. They are herders who need water and pastures for their flocks of cattle and goats. To compound their difficulties, they have been forced off their ancestral lands by government forces, forced to retreat higher into the mountains, onto increasingly arid land.
Government forces raid their settlements frequently, and poison any wells they find.
So the people are forced to dig new wells. However they have no tools, no hoes or shovels. Instead they dig with pieces of shrapnel from the bombs which the government drops on them. Lacking sufficient clean water for themselves, for their flocks, and for cultivation of crops, the people are constantly on the brink of famine. This is precisely the government's aim.