The Coptic monk Ghabrial al-Antony who was kidnapped in the Sudanese town of Nyala in Darfur last April has returned safely home.
The Coptic Church in Sudan expressed its happiness at the return of Fr Ghabrial unharmed and without paying any ransom, through the efforts of the Sudanese government and security authorities.
Fr Ghabrial serves at the Coptic Orthodox church of the Holy Virgin in Nyala. He is a Sudanese of Egyptian origin; he took orders at the monastery St Antony and Anba Moussa al-Aswad in Khartoum.
Last April, Fr Boulos Fouad of the Coptic Church in Khartoum told Watani that Fr Ghabrial was working with his brother on a farm that belongs to the church in Nyala when three unknown men attacked him, tied up his brother, seized Fr Ghabrial and fled. “We don’t know who they are or why they kidnapped him,” Fr Boulos had said. He added that Anba Eliya, Bishop of Khartoum, was closely following up the case with the Sudanese government.
There is no accurate number of the Copts in Sudan, since a considerable number of them had been leaving for South Sudan since it gained independence.
The Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan is the oldest Church there. It constitutes two large parishes: the Khartoum, South Sudan and Uganda parish under Metropolitan Anba Eliya; and the Um Durman, Nuba and North Sudan under Metropolitan Anba Sarapamon.
Watani International
25 May 2016