The president of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference was beaten severely by soldiers of one of the warring factions in Sudan.
Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille, bishop of the Diocese of El Obeid, Sudan, was accosted by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on December 2, while returning from a Eucharistic Congress, CISA News Africa reported.
“We narrowly missed martyrdom," the bishop said in a text message to local bishops. The beating stopped when one of the force’s leaders said, “That is enough."
The RSF is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in a nearly two-year war in the East African country.
Bishop Tombe Trille, 60, reportedly was targeted shortly after attending the Eucharistic Congress in Juba, capital of South Sudan, on November 24, an event that marked 50 years of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Sudan and South Sudan.
On November 25, Tombe Trille and other bishops also met with President Salva Kiir of South Sudan to discuss issues related to the Church and the region, CISA News said.
“The attack occurred as Bishop Tombe Trille was traveling from Renk, a Sudanese border town, to El Obeid,” said CISA News reporter Paschal Norbert said. “According to sources close to him, the bishop was using public transport when he reached a checkpoint manned by the army. There, he was intercepted because he was carrying some money, a routine practice for travelers being searched, especially when traveling with hard currency. The soldiers reportedly took a small amount of money in US Dollars from him before allowing him to proceed.”
Not the first time
Shortly afterwards, the bishop was stopped by the RSF, who accosted him, took all his remaining money, and subjected him to a severe beating.
CISA News said that the RSF accused Tombe Trille, who was traveling with a deacon, of being connected to a member of the Sovereign Council from Kordofan.
“He was also targeted for his ethnicity as a Nuba, an indigenous group from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state. The deacon, who is of Nuer ethnicity, was not attacked,” CISA noted.
The incident wasn’t the first close call for Bishop Tombe Trille. Just a few days after the war began, he and some other clergy narrowly escaped death when rockets hit Mary Queen of Africa Cathedral and the priests’ residence.
The war erupted in April 2023 over a power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the SAF, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (who goes by the nom de guerre Hemedti), commander of the RSF. (Above, in a screen grab from an RSF video, Hemedti addresses fighters in 2023.)
The conflict has led to tens of thousands of deaths, the displacement of millions, and the collapse of critical infrastructure.
In addition, the conflict has severely interrupted both farming and supply lines of humanitarian aid, leading to hunger levels deemed “above the famine threshold,” according to the United Nations.
According to CISA, Bishop Remijo Adam of the Diocese of Wau, said that Bishop Tombe Trille “remains courageous and determined to stay with his flock amidst the ongoing conflict.”
