Slovak Nun/Doctor Shot and Wounded in South Sudan
Bratislava, May 17 (TASR) – Slovak nun/doctor Veronika Terezia Rackova was shot and wounded by three soldiers in South Sudan on Monday, the Slovak Bishops Conference (KBS) press office and the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry reported on Tuesday.
“We can confirm that our citizen was shot and wounded in South Sudan. She was taken to a hospital in the Kenyan capital [Nairobi]. Her condition is stable. Our office in Nairobi is providing necessary consular assistance to the Slovak citizen,” TASR was told by Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Peter Stano.
According to the KBS press office, the nun was driving a car after taking a patient to a different hospital on Monday night when she was ambushed by gunmen. Among other injuries, she suffered multiple fractures of the pelvis during the shooting. After undergoing two operations at the local hospital, she was taken by helicopter to Kenya for further surgery.
A member of the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters (SSpS), Veronika Terezia Rackova is head of St. Bakhita’s Medical Centre in Yei, South Sudan. In the past she’s served in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and Ghana.
The media in South Sudan reported that the authorities have already detained three suspects – soldiers from the ‘Joint Military Unit’, which is deployed in the area to provide security for civilians at night. Yei River State Information Minister Stephen Lodu Onesimo condemned the incident as an “undisciplined and barbarian act”, adding that the attackers “must be brought to justice”.
