Burglars broke into the office of the Wau Catholic Diocesan Bishop last Sunday night and stole USD 20,000, over 70,000 SSP, a computer, and a Thuraya satellite mobile phone.

It remains unclear how thieves managed to access the office of the Bishop which is located within the church premises.

According to Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State acting governor, Arkanjelo Anyar Anyar Mel, who is also the state minister of cabinet affairs, the stolen computer contained information about the church and the Diocese of Rumbek which was recently handed over to Wau Bishop Mathew Remijio Adam. 

“This morning the state government visited the Bishop of Wau after hearing that there were some destructions, some thieves went in and stole some of the documents,” Minister Anyar said. “In our meeting, the Bishop remarked that they have lost some important documents with the computer that contained the information about the church, including the Diocese of Rumbek which has been recently handed to him.” 

He said the state government will spare no effort in bringing the culprits to book. 

“We have condemned this as the state government and we have instructed all our security organs to look for these criminals. We have ordered the searching and we are calling on our local citizens to cooperate with the security in combating such activities,” Anyar said.   

However, when contacted, the church administration, including Bishop Mathew Remijo, declined comment on the matter. 

Last week, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mathew Remijio as the Apostolic Administrator of Rumbek Diocese until Rumbek Bishop-elect, Christian Carlassare, who is nursing bullet wounds in a Nairobi hospital recovers.