Sudan: Priest is Tortured

A Sudanese Catholic priest serving in the Diocese of El Obeid in Kauda, Nuba Mountain, was on April 16, 2004 picked up by heavily armed men under tight security, following the alleged discovery of a human body nearby.

Fr Abraham Abud was seized from his center when security organs retrieved a body of a five-year-old child mysteriously thrown in a pit latrine near his residence.

The security personnel, who claimed that the priest was taken for protective custody to save him from being lynched by his religious opponents, subjected him to fierce torture.

"The ethic of priesthood is respect for the rights of the people of God, and the church usually works for religious tolerance than involving in criminal activities," Jervasio O Okot, of the Dryland Journal, told CISA in a statement.

Okot also urged the international community, human rights organizations, churches, Islamic organizations, and United Nations to independently investigate the cause of this incident.

Meanwhile, when the governor of Nuba Mountain, CDR Abdal Aziz, who is currently in Kenya for the Sudan peace talks, was contacted, he said he was not aware of the incident.