Three elderly Italian nuns were brutally beaten, raped and murdered inside their Burundi convent, police said Monday as they continued their search for the killers.
Olga Raschietti, 83, and Lucia Pulici, 75, both Roman Catholic nuns, were stabbed to death inside the convent Sunday afternoon in Kamenge, near Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital. The killer then battered one of the two with a rock before fleeing the convent, Agence France-Presse reported.
Another nun in the same convent was killed several hours later, her body beaten and beheaded, police said. Colleagues named her as 79-year-old Bernadette Boggia, AFP reported.
“After the discovery of the two nuns who were brutally killed … the decapitated body of the third nun was found,” Deputy Director General of Police Godefroid Bizimana told AFP.
All three nuns were raped, police said.
Burundi police said the motive of the killing was not clear. Law enforcement sources suggested the third nun was killed by an accomplice who had hidden in the convent, AFP reported.
Police spokesman Colonel Helmegilde Harimenshi said three men were being questioned.
Burundian Vice-President Prosper Bazombanza said the government was “appalled by such barbarity.”
“No one can understand how a third sister was killed late at night. … Burundi’s government promises to shed light on this matter as quickly as possible,” he said, AFP reported.
Pope Francis, in a condolence telegram to Bujumbura’s archbishop, said he “learned with great sadness of the murder” of the three “faithful and devout nuns in these tragic circumstances,” the Associated Press reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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