Guineau Bissau coup - missionaries safe
Following the military coup in Guinea Bissau, which took place on Sunday, the Missionary News Service has heard that priests and religious working in the country are dafe. Fr Davide Sciocco, originally from Milan, who runs 'Radio Sol Mansi', the diocesan radio station of Bissau, based in Mansoa, 40km from the capital said: "The situation here in Mansoa and in Bissau is calm." Fr Sciocco said the soldiers were "very respectful" even though - as a precautionary measure, the radio station was only transmitting religious and international news. Fr Sciocco reassured the families of all the missionaries present in the former Portuguese colony that they are fine and people were just staying at home. He said: "The people do not want to know about violence and have bad memories of the civil war which broke out in June 1998 - a two year conflict in which many people suffered." Fr Sciocco, 40, is a member of the PIME (Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions). He called upon the sister Churches in Africa and throughout the world to pray for Guinea Bissau. Source: MISNA