In frantic pleas, South Sudan’s Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio Diocese, Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, has appealed to the Western Equatoria state governor and the South Sudanese republican president to help find the missing priest and driver.

The two have been missing since Saturday noon, 27 April 2024, when they travelled from Nagero County to Tombura.

Speaking to Vatican News, Bishop Hiiboro told of his unease and anxiety for the safety of the missing priest and driver. He asked for prayers and thanked all who have expressed solidarity with messages from across the world.

Narrating the timeline of events, Bishop Hiiboro said Fr. Luke, in the company of his driver, had gone on a pastoral mission to Nagero County. The duo left Nagero County for Tombura at noon on Saturday, 27 April. They were travelling by road on a motorbike. They never arrived at their destination, triggering concern and alarm.

A Catechist was able to speak to them at 1pm, and after that, their phones went silent.

On Sunday, the following day, 28 April, Bishop Hiiboro formally wrote to the governor of Western Equatoria state, seeking the help of the local authorities in locating the missing priest and driver.

“Rev Father Luke Yugue is my priest of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio who has been working for the people of Nagero County. He went missing during his travel from Nagero County to Tombura County yesterday, Saturday, 27 April 2024. Rev Fr Luke left Nagero at 12.00 noon by road on a motorbike with the driver, Mr. Gbeko. They were last found Online at 1.00pm (Saturday) when Catechist Ngbandua of Maringindo called them. Until now, Fr. Luke and his driver have not reached Tombura and are missing; their telephones are off,” wrote Bishop Hiiboro.

On Monday, 29 April, Bishop Hiiboro escalated his appeal by contacting South Sudan’s republican president, Salva Kiir Mayardit. The prelate informed President Kiir that Fr Luke and Mr. Gbeko had been missing for two days, and the area where they went missing was controlled by the SPLM-IO Forces.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (abbreviated SPLM-IO) is a mainly South Sudanese political party and rebel group that split from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in 2013 due to political tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar. The Vice President, Riek Machar, heads the SPLM-IO party and militia.

“Your Excellency, I am deeply concerned about his (Fr Luke’s) disappearance and the state of Tombura County,” Bishop Hiiboro wrote to President Salva Kiir.

He added, “As a church, we appeal to Your Excellency to help us bring Fr. Luka and those with him alive … I am convinced that at this critical moment, the President of the Republic is the only person with the power to save and bring back the priest and his driver to us,” Bishop Hiiboro implored.

Another religious priest shot dead in South Africa

Fr. Paul Tatu Mothobi, a member the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/ Stigmatines) and former Media and Communications Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), is the latest victim of murder in South Africa.

The native of Lesotho’s Catholic Archdiocese of Maseru, who was ministering in South Africa’s Catholic Archdiocese of Pretoria “passed on to be with the Lord on Saturday, 27th April 2024 after sustaining a gunshot”, the “Death Notice” by the South Africa-based CSS Provincial Secretary, Fr. Jeremia Thami Mkhwanazi, reads in part.

According to reports, Fr. Tatu’s lifeless body with gunshot wounds was found on April 27 in his car on N1 Road, a national road in South Africa, running from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to Beit Bridge, a border town with Zimbabwe.

In a Monday, April 29 statement, SACBC members condole with the Stigmatines and Fr. Tatu’s family, and describe his killing as “not an isolated incident”, recalling the March 13 murder of Fr. William Banda, the Zambian-born member of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegan Fathers), who was shot in the sacristy of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of South Africa’s Tzaneen Diocese.

 “Fr. Tatu worked for several years as the SACBC media and communications officer with dedication; we are saddened by his tragic death. We extend our condolences to the Stigmatine congregation, to which he belonged and to his family,” Catholic Bishops in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa say in the one-page statement that their President, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, signed.

The Catholic Church leaders add, “It must be noted that the death of Fr. Paul Tatu is not an isolated incident but rather a distressing example of the deteriorating state of security and morality in South Africa.”

The murder of Fr. Tatu and that of Fr. Banda, SACBC members lament, “occurs amid growing concerns about the increasing disregard for the value of life, where people are wantonly killed.” 

Born in 1979 in Teyateyaneng, a town in Lesotho’s district of Berea, the late Fr. Tatu joined the Stigmatines in 1998. He studied philosophy at St. Francis House of Studies in Pretoria from 1999 to 2000 and moved on to Botswana for Novitiate.

Before theological studies, the late Catholic Priest took a year off from Priestly formation, during which he lived with miners in South Africa’s Free State; he accompanied miners in mining theory, setting theory, and English among other lessons.