Central African Republic: Comboni Sisters attacked and robbed

Source: Fides

The Foyer Community of the Comboni Missionary Sisters in Bangui, Central Africa, was attacked and robbed by a gang of about eight or nine people on Saturday, 5 January.

The Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries, Sister Luigia Coccia, said the three Sisters had finished evening prayers around 7pm, when they were attacked, immobilised and threatened for about three hours. "The thieves searched everywhere and stole everything they could. The three sisters, in shock, left the mission temporarily and took refuge in the provincial house in Bangui."

"Central Africa seems to have become muddled in an inextricable tangle of foreign interference, defaults by the international community and the inability of the local government" Fr Federico Trinchero, Carmelite missionary of the Carmelo of Bangui wrote in a report for Fides on 18 December.

There have been countless attacks on Catholic communities, parishes, camps hosting refugees, houses and churches burnt down, civilians brutally killed.

Five priests were killed in the Central African Republic in 2018: Don Joseph Désiré Angbabata, of the diocese of Bambari, was injured during an assault on his parish and died shortly afterward; Don Albert Toungoumale-Baba was killed in Notre Dame de Fatima parish, during a massacre by an armed group that attacked the parish; Don Firmin Gbagoua, Vicar General of the Diocese of Bambari was killed in another attack; the Vicar General of the diocese of Alindao, Don Blaise Mada, and Don Celestine Ngoumbango, parish priest of Mingala, were killed during the assault on the Bishops' residence of Alindao, where they had taken refuge with other people.

In the last attack, former Seleka rebels of the UPS (Unité pour la Paix en Centrafrique) killed at least 60 people, most were displaced persons staying in a reception camp near the Cathedral.