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Catholic refugees switch diocese

    NAIROBI

    About 20,000 Sudanese Catholic refugees accommodated at the Kakuma camp, northwestern Kenya, will switch diocese. From January 2001, the refugees will be administered by the Kenyan diocese of Lodwar, northern Kenya. Since the establishment of the camp in 1992 they were under the administration of the diocese of Rumbek, Bahr el Ghazal, headed by Bishop Caesar Mazzolari. The Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO), said on Tuesday that Bishop Mazzolari had conveyed news of this change to the new bishop of Lodwar, Dr Patrick Harrington, during a confirmation service at the camp as his last official function there.

    Rumbek diocese had, during its tenure, built a hall with solar-powered lighting where students could study after dark, as well as other church-related, structures. SCIO quoted Bishop Mazzolari as saying his diocese would not ask for any compensation for any of the assets it would be handing over to the new administration. “Everything we did here was for the people of God,” he said. The camp houses a total of about 85,000 refugees, most of whom are Sudanese, with the remainder from Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the DRC.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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