Missionary killed in the troubled north

The Roman Catholic missionary community in northern Uganda says it is "saddened and shocked" by the murder of a 76-year-old Catholic priest at his home in the troubled region on Wednesday night. According to local sources, the assailants forcibly entered the home of the Italian priest, Father Luciano Fulvi, in a mission on the outskirts of Gulu town, 280 km north of the capital, Kampala, before slitting his throat with a penknife. Students at a technical college attached to Fulvi's mission found his body after he failed to appear for church activities in the morning. They also found two knives in the courtyard surrounding his house. The attack follows the killing of two American missionaries in Yumbe District, 150 km northwest of Gulu, by armed bandits operating there. Northern Uganda has suffered banditry and unrest for the past 18 years, mostly at the hands of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which frequently attacks villages, refugee camps, trading centres and missions. Father Eliah Timtaloni, priest of Gulu Cathedral, however said it was unlikely for the LRA to have been involved. "It was probably a thief," he told IRIN. Timtaloni said 15 Catholic missionaries had been killed in northern Uganda since the war began, most of them in rebel ambushes or other situations involving groups carrying firearms. "This is the first time a priest has had his throat slit with a knife," he said. "Everybody is in shock," he added. "We haven't had time to deal with this. We have always felt that in this place there is so much senseless violence."