News Article by AFP posted on November 14, 2000 at 15:52:41: EST (-5 GMT)
Missionary recounts bombing of church in Sudan
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 14 (AFP) - An American missionary recounted
Tuesday
the bombing of some 300 people at a church in southern Sudan
on November 5.
Elise Glading, of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort
Lauderdale,
Florida, told AFP in Johannesburg, where she was taking
a break, that the
Antonov plane (an aircraft used by the Sudanese
air force) dropped eight
bombs on the congregation at Jambo, in
Western Equatoria state, after bombing
the village of Tapiri, some
20 kilometres (12 miles) away.
"We noticed the aircraft over the area at 8:40 am," she said,
"and heard
bombing in the distance about 8:50 am.
"The service started at 9:00 am, and at 9:20 am we noticed the
plane was
right above the church.
"We ran out and jumped into two bomb shelters right beside the
church --
just big holes in the ground.
"The aircraft dropped four bombs, and then came back and dropped
four
more, with the last one really close, about 20 yards (metres)
away. We were
covered with dirt, but by the grace of God no one was
hurt."
Reports from Tapiri said no one was hurt in the bombing there
either,
Glading said.
The mainly Christian and animist Sudan People's Liberation Army
rebels of
southern Sudan have been fighting Khartoum's successive
Arab and Islamic
governments since 1983.