Sudan still holding confiscated properties belonging to the Catholic Church: Bishop

October 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Catholic Church in Sudan said that the transitional government has not returned their properties confiscated by the former regime two months after its formation.

The new Sudanese minister of religious affairs vowed to promote religious coexistence and to ensure religious freedoms in the country 30 years after the rule of Islamist regime which used to ban, demolish new churches and to confiscate properties.

However, Bishop Tombe Trille Kuku of El Obeid Diocese, one of two Sudan’s ecclesiastical districts, told the ACI Africa, a Catholic news agency, that there is no progress on the issue of the confiscated properties despite the positive change in term of religious freedom.

“Many of our properties that have been occupied by the former government’s security wings are still in the hands of the government, the police, they are not yet brought to us,” said Bishop Trille.

He said that the confiscation was limited only to churches but include houses and vehicles belonging to the Catholic church.

The Pope representative in El-Obeid, however, disclosed that they had some meetings with the Sudanese authorities but there is no tangible result until now.

“We are there, there are some meetings with those concerned, but we want to say it is still very far to say anything about the relation between the Catholic Church and the (transitional) government,” he said.

The Sudanese Minister of Religious Affairs Nasr al-Din Mufreh on Monday 28 October, said that Sudan is characterized by its religious diversity, coexistence and tolerance and called to work together to build a new homeland of love and peace.

Mufreh made his statements during a meeting with Antonius Vakios the undersecretary of the Archdiocese of Mary Gerges Coptic Church in Omdurman. The meeting discussed the religious coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Sudan.

(ST)