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Sudan: Church Attacked in Fierce Fighting Over Oil Rich Town
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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
El Obeid
A Catholic church was attacked and looted by government supporters during fierce fighting between the army and soldiers of the former liberation movement, SPLA, in the disputed oil-rich town of Abiyei.
Some 50,000 people were displaced. Reports said fighting resumed in the town on Tuesday. A Catholic bishop in the region said SPLA forces had occupied the town, which lies on the border between north and south Sudan.
Violent clashes erupted last week, leading to burning down of most houses in the town. Thousands of people fled into the forest.
Bishop Antonio Menegazzo of El Obeid told CISA that the Catholic Church compound in Abiyei was attacked and looted. Two priests serving there were away in El Obeid for their annual retreat. But a deacon who was present at the parish during the attacks was forced to flee.
Abyei Town is about 600 kilometres south of El Obeid, at the boarder between north and south Sudan, and is considered a Dinka town. It is a powder keg of permanent tensions between the Khartoum government and the former liberation movement, the SPLA/M, and between the liberation movement and the nomadic Masseriya tribe.
Fighting broke out last Tuesday night following the killing of two people and worsened on Wednesday after a soldier was killed.
"Real fighting started between the army and the SPLA. The town, most of whose houses are in straw, was burnt," Bishop Menegazzo said. "According to a witness, about 90 percent of the huts have been destroyed. All the inhabitants ran away from the town, taking refuge in the nearby forest."
At the end of the shooting, members of the Masseriya tribe, who are supported by the government, arrived in Abyei in a lorry from Mugled and started looting. "Of course the church and the priests' house were very attractive targets. They surrounded the compound of the church, entered and looted the church and the house," Bishop Megazzo said.
The attackers then set fire to three prefabricated rooms which were completely destroyed. They also torched a church warehouse, but not many goods were burnt. The government army was there, but did not intervene, the bishop said.
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Residents of Abyei have not yet returned to the town due to insecurity. "The SPLA has occupied the town. Surely the fighting will continue."
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