KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Witnesses and media reports say a Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum.
The church in Khartoum’s Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident was almost certainly part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.
Last week, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, which the southerners call Panthou, sending Sudanese troops fleeing. The Khartoum government later claimed to have regained the town.
The witnesses and several newspapers said a mob of several hundreds shouting insults at southerners torched the church.
