AFRICA/SUDAN - The kidnappers had promised the release of the 2 priests, but so far they have not done it

Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) - "The kidnappers had promised to release yesterday evening the two priests kidnapped on January 15, but so far they have not done it" say sources of the Archbishopric of Khartoum to Fides. The two priests, Father Joseph Makwey, forty years old, and Father Sylvester Mogga, thirty-five, were kidnapped on Sunday evening, January 15 in the parish of Saint Josephine Bakhita, in Rabak, a town 60 km in the south of Khartoum.
According to the testimony of Mgr.Daniel Adwok Kur, Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum, contained in a statement on behalf of Aid to the Church in Need sent to Fides, "the neighbors said they saw a truck full of people break through the parish gate".
According to Fides sources, the kidnappers belong to a Shiluk militia, which attacked the parish, because according to them, an officer of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) was hiding, SPLA is the movement that fought for the independence of South Sudan and is currently in power in the new State.
The government in Khartoum accuses the SPLA of South Sudan to support some guerrilla movements in the southern part of Northern Sudan. The SPLA is also formed in large part by Dinka, an ethnic group that has repeatedly been in conflict with the Shiluk. "From the contacts received, it appears that the kidnapping of the two priests has a criminal motivation and not political" concludes the source of Fides. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 18/01/2012)