Eritrea’s last Catholic hospital was closed on Friday, with the nuns who ran the facility taken away by police and seals placed on the doors, according to a report frpm Agenzia Fides.
The Catholic news agency said the hospital, located in the village of Zager – about 30 kilometres from the capital of Asmara, had provided maternity and general medical services.
It’s the latest among more than 20 Catholic hospitals and clinics to be closed in recent weeks. Fides reports that some observers have linked the closures to the church’s criticism of the government with Catholic bishops among those who have called for reforms in a country which currently had no constitution and has never organised presidential or legislative elections.
The government has responded by saying the closures were in line with rules introduced in 1995 which limit the activities of religious institutions.
Nuns who run a health facility in the country’s south were also asked on Thursday to leave their residence.
Earlier, an Eritrean priest now living in Rome, Fr Mussie Zerai, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, that the purpose of the closures was to “divest the Church of all services in the areas of education and health”.
“Our work is to be restricted only to our places of worship.”
The priest said there was “no justification” for the actions of the regime.
“It punishes those who are taking care of the poorest of the poor,” he said.
Aid to the Church in Need reported that more than 200,000 people received treatment each year at health-care facilities run by the church.
“Most of the patients weren’t Catholics, but Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and members of other religions. Many facilities are located in remote areas,” the priest explained.
