Catholic Church priest severely beaten by unidentified armed men

JUBA — A South Sudanese Catholic Church priest has been robbed and beaten severely along Torit-Kapoeta highway, Radio Tamazuj, quoting church leaders, reports.

Fr. Leonsio Lomina, the finance administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Torit was traveling from Kapoeta to Torit when highway robbers stopped, robbed, and assaulted him in the Kidepo area. The priest was saved when another vehicle approached the scene forcing the assailants to flee in the bush. 

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, the youth chaplain at the Catholic Diocese of Torit, Fr. John Wajaras, described the incident as unfortunate and said it was sad that everyone was now a target on the roads. 

“I just received the news yesterday (Wednesday). He is Fr. Leonsio Lomina, it is around Kidepo valley where some armed men stopped him. Some others were holding sticks. After learning that he is a priest, they just wanted to take the computer and all that. Some of them tried to get money from the passengers,” Fr. Wajaras said. 

He added: “It is a very unfortunate situation and is not only targeting a particular group of people. I think it is a general thing of our roads being insecure, not only for priests but for everybody. In our state here many people are attacked on the roads, priests and other people are killed.”

The parish priest at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Catholic Diocese of Torit, Fr. Kamilo Afore, confirmed the incident and said his colleague was brutally beaten.

“We are okay if not for those sisters killed, then also about Fr. Lomina who was badly beaten. He is at the Bishop’s residence. They took his phone and he was assaulted physically,” Fr. Afore said. 

The leader of the Kideopo valley community, Claudio Siliman Liling, acknowledges that the assault on a priest happened in his territory but put the blame on Buya cattle raiders. 

“The youth of Buya ambushed the vehicle of Fr. Leonsio Lomina, they looted the car and even they harmed the priest in a place called Longiro belonging to our territory of Kideopo valley, but the people who did the act are the Buya boys who are grazing their cattle in that area,” Liling said. “The priest was coming from 

Kapoeta to Torit, he was in a vehicle and what rescued him was another vehicle which came from behind otherwise they were going to do something to hurt him.”

He urged communities along the highways to allow vehicles to move freely.

“If it is a question of cattle raiding, the car is not a cow, we advise the leaders of the Buya community to also advise their youth not to do that (ambush) because the highway is for everybody and not for a particular group,” Liling said. 

Attempts to reach the Buya community for comment over the allegation were futile.