The Secretary-General of the Episcopate, Fr. Peter Suleiman reported that several offices of the secretariat of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of South Sudan were looted and damaged during the night of May 24-25.
The priest told a news conference that the incident occurred at the episcopate headquarters in Juba after the security guard was drugged until he was “unconscious”.
“I received a phone call this morning at 6:30 a.m. in which they told me that the thieves entered and destroyed all the doors of the secretariat. We were surprised this morning to find the guard unconscious, lying in the middle of the complex, and I rushed him to the hospital,” said Fr. Suleiman on May 25.
The thieves took computers and an unspecified sum of money in US dollars and Sudanese pounds.
“They broke into five offices. In my office, they took the laptop, the external hard drive, some flash drives, and some money. They left the office in disrepair, ”he lamented.
The priest added that the offices “most damaged and looted were the finance department and the office of the Director of Caritas, because two shelves were destroyed.”
While those involved in the robbery have yet to be identified, the Sudanese Catholic priest said the culprits appear to be close to them, “because no one has that much experience locating the locations.”
“What happened is really very bad for the Catholic Church, because people without faith are entering and destroying the institution. Someone without faith does not know that what we are doing is for the universal Church,” said Fr. Suleiman.
The priest also expressed the fear that documents and “inconclusive reports from donors” will be “exposed”.
“I am the secretary-general of Sudan and South Sudan, which means they have spoiled the secretariat’s work and image because I have official documents on my computer,” he lamented.
On the other hand, he assured us that the church authorities had already reported the events to the police. “The investigators came and followed me to the hospital with the security guard,” he said.
“I hope justice prevails,” the official told reporters, urging South Sudanese agencies and authorities to “investigate the incident that targets Church institutions.”
“This makes people feel insecure and reluctant to create projects for the development of the country,” he said, adding that “people need to be God-fearing people.”