{"id":28552,"date":"2018-05-08T09:34:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T09:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=28552"},"modified":"2018-05-09T07:22:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T07:22:49","slug":"central-african-republic-at-least-19-killed-including-priest-in-church-attack-murcadha-o-flaherty-and-john-newton-acn-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/08\/central-african-republic-at-least-19-killed-including-priest-in-church-attack-murcadha-o-flaherty-and-john-newton-acn-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC:  19 killed including priest in church attack &#8211; Murcadha O Flaherty  &#8211; ACN UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>CENTRAL<\/strong><strong> AFRICAN REPUBLIC<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>At least 19 killed including <\/strong><strong>priest in church attack<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A priest has described seeing at least 19 Christians were killed when gunmen \u2018rained down bullets\u2019 on more than 2,000 people gathered for Mass in the Central African Republic. Father Moses Otii, the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in the country\u2019s capital Bangui, told Catholic charity Aid to Church in Need about 120 parishioners were injured during the violence, which included grenade attacks, on Tuesday (1<sup>st<\/sup> May). Father Otii said that the attackers \u201coutnumbered the police and the police retreated, then the attackers started shooting at the church and throwing hand grenades at the people.\u201d He added: \u201cWith my own eyes I saw three hand grenades thrown in front of the Church, but thank God in an area without people, and a grenade thrown in among many people gathered in the open air within the church\u2019s compound. The grenade was thrown from behind the parish walls into the crowd of people at Mass. It exploded.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cNormally our Masses are celebrated in the open air since our church cannot contain more than 2,000 people. And we had more than 2,000 people for the Mass. So many people were injured. They started running in all directions. We had people almost everywhere \u2013 our rooms, refectory, parish halls, our kitchen, and even in the toilets.\u201d He added: \u201cOthers could not run. For example, a lady had both legs cut off by the grenade, she couldn\u2019t move. It was a commotion with people running and people crying.\u201dFather Otii was on the altar with 15 concelebrating priests when he saw the gunmen outside the Church targeting the Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He said: \u201cI saw the attackers waving their arms in what I interpreted as \u2018calm down\u2019 gesture just before they started raining bullets at the people gathered at Mass. \u201cI heard gunshots during the prayer of the faithful, just before the offertory.\u201d The priest added: \u201cImmediately when things calmed down, we got some young people from the parish to help transport the injured to the hospital.\u201d Father Otii also said: \u201cThere are no bullet holes in the walls of the church and parish halls from this attack.\u201d He added: \u201cUntil now no one has claimed responsibility. People saw the attackers come from the direction of PK5 [neighbourhood], which is just close to the parish \u2013 the majority of PK5 are Muslim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to reports, PK5 is home to a number of former S\u00e9l\u00e9ka rebels. A mosque was also burnt down following the Church attack. Two men were killed. Among those killed in Our Lady of Fatima Church was Father Albert Baba, who served in a nearby parish. Father Otti said: \u201cI knew him well. He was a calm speaker, he was in his 70\u2019s. He was someone joyful. He was lively despite his age.\u201d During Eucharistic celebrations, he liked dancing. He had his own style of animating the Eucharistic celebrations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He added: \u201cFather Albert worked as Justice and Peace co-ordinator in the diocese of Bangui. \u201cWhere there was injustice he went and spoke to people from all walks of life to help them. He would surely want a prayer of peace to be heard after these attacks in our country\u201d. Reports state that protesters carried the priest\u2019s body through the street of Bangui towards the presidential palace. CAR\u2019s President Faustin Archange Touadera called for three days of nationwide mourning after the attacks. Calling for peace, Father Otii said: \u201cMy prayer after the attacks in Bangui \u2013 Good Lord, bring us peace so that we can live like brothers and sisters together. \u201cSave all innocent people from their suffering. Good Lord stop the violence and transform the hearts of those attackers. \u201cCome to Lord, come to help us. May the blood of your servant Father Albert and all the innocents spilt in this country not be in vain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Murcadha O Flaherty and John Newton &#8211; ACN UK<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC At least 19 killed including priest in church attack &nbsp; A priest has described seeing at least 19 Christians were killed when gunmen \u2018rained down bullets\u2019 on more than 2,000 people gathered for Mass in the Central African Republic. Father Moses Otii, the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: 19 killed including priest in church attack - Murcadha O Flaherty - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/05\/08\/central-african-republic-at-least-19-killed-including-priest-in-church-attack-murcadha-o-flaherty-and-john-newton-acn-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: 19 killed including priest in church attack - Murcadha O Flaherty - ACN UK - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC At least 19 killed including priest in church attack &nbsp; A priest has described seeing at least 19 Christians were killed when gunmen \u2018rained down bullets\u2019 on more than 2,000 people gathered for Mass in the Central African Republic. 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