With the Christian South and the Muslim North already on the brink of war, a Catholic church in Khartoum was torched by Muslims.

Via the AP:

A Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

The church in Khartoum’s Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Last week, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, which the southerners call Panthou, sending Sudanese troops fleeing. The Khartoum government later claimed to have regained the town.

The witnesses and several newspapers said a mob of several hundreds shouting insults at southerners torched the church. Fire engines could not put out the fire, they added.

The Sudan Tribune offers further details:

An Islamic fundamentalist group in Sudan made an attempt to bring down a church in the capital Khartoum and eventually managed to set it on fire.

The group’s supporters led by hard-line figure Muhammad Abdel-Kareem gathered at 60th Street, a main road of Khartoum, and marched towards the Anglican Church located in the Sawafi area.

They were met by Sudanese security forces which surrounded the church and prevented the group from entering it by imposing a cordon.

However, some individuals from the group managed to sneak through the barrier and set the church on fire.

The church contains a home for the elderly, clinic, educational classrooms and houses students as well as monks.

The left will no doubt point to Timothy McVeigh to provide much-needed balance.