Anglican University in Congo Attacked Last Month, Official Injured and Robbed

(Photo Credit: Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion)The Rev. Canon Daniel Sabiti Tibafa, vice chancellor of Université Anglicane du Congo, examines damage to the campus in an undated file photo.

An official for the Unversite Anglicane Du Congo, located in the African nation's northeast said it experienced its first attack last month since its opening two years ago, as an armed group of people broke into his home, robbing the official while injuring his hand and causing damage to property.

The Rev. Canon Daniel Sabiti Tibafa, the university vice chancellor, who said he was with his family at home at the time, said the attackers stole a total of $450 in the 2:00 a.m. attack that broke the door to his house. He said the attackers used heavy stones and guns to destroy the lock of the door.

The university is located in Bunia, in the nation's northwest.

"[A]rmed people broke the door of our house threatening to kill all of us if we did not have any money on us," he wrote in a report by the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion published on the Communion's website. "They beat me on the back and on my right hand."

"All of us would have lost our lives was it not the mercy of God on us! Praise be to Him!" he wrote.

He said the alleged assailants fired shots to keep people away from the house. He said police came an hour later after another school official called.

CUAC's General Secretary, the Rev. Canon James Callaway, said has "been a force for knitting community back together after years of conflict in Congo, bringing together former victims and the men who were drawn into the militias. As such it has been a vital force for peace, which now more than ever needs our support to continue."

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