An Italian Catholic priest has been wounded in a shooting in South Sudan, leading to the arrest of multiple local clerics, government and church officials said Tuesday.

Christian Carlassare, 43, was at his residence at the Rumbek Catholic Diocese in central South Sudan on Sunday night when two attackers shot at him multiple times.

The priest, recently appointed bishop but yet to be ordained, was shot in the legs, according to church officials.

A missionary who had served as parish priest in neighbouring Jonglei state for 11 years, Carlassare moved to the Rumbek diocese last month

Acting Information Minister for Lakes State, William Kogi, told AFP that two gunmen stormed the church compound before gaining access to a 12-room building accommodating priests and sprayed bullets at Carlassare’s door, and later directly at him.

“When the other priests came in, they (gunmen) didn’t shoot (at) them or do anything to them,” he said.

“His room was the only one targeted.”

The motive of the attack was not clear but the minister alluded to existing “politics” within the church.

Twenty-five suspects, including a former acting bishop of the diocese, priests and security guards from the compound, have been arrested, said Kongi.

One of the alleged attackers is also among those in police custody.

“Some members within the church (were) arrested for investigation because there was politics within the church and all of them are liable for investigations,” said Kongi.

Pope Francis “has been informed of the attack and prays for him,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told Vatican News.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir termed the attack “unacceptable” and called for an quick investigation.

“If those who carried out this shameful act were doing so to intimidate the church, they are sadly mistaken … authorities will not allow (the) action of (a) few criminals to affect the plans of ecclesiastical authority,” he said in a statement.

Comboni Missionaries, an international group that Carlassare belongs to, said he was in a stable condition.

However the injuries affected the soft tissues of both legs and led to “a major” loss of blood that required a transfusion.

“We join the many persons of goodwill who are expressing their dismay at this umpteenth episode of violence against defenceless and innocent people,” the Rome-based missionaries group said.

Mali’s agriculture ministry said on Tuesday that it had detected outbreaks of bird flu in the West African state and announced precautionary measures to “contain the disease”.

Veterinary officials discovered the outbreaks after investigating high animal mortality levels on poultry farms around the capital Bamako as well as two other towns, according to a statement.

The ministry has ordered precautionary measures including disinfecting and quarantining farms, and destroying carcasses.

It also warned against eating birds that had fallen ill, and urged farmers to notify authorities should their animals die.

Mali’s neighbours Senegal, Mauritania and Niger have also declared bird flu outbreaks in recent months.

The virus hit Europe over the winter too, where in France, officials culled about 3.5 million birds to prevent its spread.

The carcass of an endangered blue whale, the world’s largest animal, washed up on a Namibian beach on Tuesday with lesions suggesting it collided with a ship, scientists said.

A whale-watcher first spotted the mammal on Monday, “floating upside down” off Namibia’s port town of Walvis Bay, conservationist Simon Elwen told AFP.

The body drifted to shore on Tuesday morning, revealing a broken pectoral fin.

“The balance of evidence at the moment strongly suggests it was struck by a ship very close to the bay,” Elwen said, noting the freshness of the animal’s skin suggested the incident took place near to land.

Samples would soon provide more insight into the cause of death, he added.

Blue whales have been slowly re-populating southern Africa’s oceans after being almost wiped out by decades of whaling.

Sightings remain rare, however, as numbers are still low and they do not usually venture near the coastline.

While it is not uncommon for other marine mammals to be hit by ships, Elwen said the blue whale’s death would be a first in the region — evidence that both cetacean numbers and marine traffic had increased.

Only between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales live on the planet today, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The species, listed as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is still threatened by habitat loss and pollution.

Chad’s new junta leader pledged national dialogue as at least five people died on Tuesday during banned protests against his generals, who took power after the shock battlefield death of his father and veteran ruler Idriss Deby Itno.

Deby’s 37-year-old son Mahamat, who heads the so-called Transitional Military Council (TMC), pledged an “inclusive national dialogue” after violent protests in the capital N’Djamena and in the south of the semi-desert country.

The government said at least five people had died in the protests but a local NGO reported nine fatalities — seven in the capital and two in the south.

Police were deployed in N’Djamena to break up the demonstrations called by the opposition and civil society groups.

They used tear gas in the capital to disperse small groups of demonstrators, some of whom burned tyres, AFP journalists saw.

A woman died when anti-junta protesters attacked a bus in N’Djamena’s Dembe district, a prosecutor told AFP.

“Some passengers fled but a woman remained and was killed by the protesters,” N’Djamena prosecutor Youssouf Tom told AFP.

Separately, a man died in protests in the southern city of Mondou, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of the capital.

“We do not yet have the exact circumstances of the death, he is a young man of 21,” Mondou prosecutor Ali Kolla Brahim told AFP.

But a high-ranking state media official, Ahmat Malloum, told AFP by telephone from Moundou that police fired live ammunition on a student who had thrown a stone at a police car.

“The student died instantly,” Malloum said.

The Chadian Convention for the Defence of Human Rights (CTDDH) said that in addition to nine deaths, 36 people were wounded and about 12 arrested.

“We denounce and condemn this massacre… (and) the disproportionate use of weapons of war against protesters,” it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned “with the greatest firmness the repression of demonstrations and the violence that took place this morning in N’Djamena.”

France, the former colonial power, has been a key ally in Chad’s battle against a jihadist revolt that has swept across the Sahel, though Macron has said he intends to eventually reduce the 5,100-strong Barkhane force Paris has deployed in the region for nearly a decade.

‘Fed up’ –

One of the protesters, who gave her name only as Sarah, told AFP: “We are fed up, fed up, fed up with the monarchical dynasty in Chad,” referring to the Deby family rule.

Behind her, a crowd ran in the streets shouting “police, police”, as security forces approached in a vehicle.

“The military has revealed its colours: govern in blood. The security forces fired live bullets on youths to break up a peaceful march,” tweeted Saleh Kebzabo, a veteran opposition figure.

“The Chadians have risen, we will no longer back down,” added Succes Masra, another prominent anti-regime figure.

Also on Tuesday, 12 Chadian soldiers were killed when they were attacked in the northern Lake Chad region used as a rear base by jihadist groups including Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a regional governor said.

Mahamat Fadoul Mackaye said 40 Islamist fighters were also killed in the fighting.

On Monday, the military junta appointed Albert Pahimi Padacke as transitional prime minister, who called for a nationwide effort to speed the return to civilian rule.

Mahamat Deby on Tuesday also pledged to “fight terrorism and respect all its international obligations.”

His father died this month after he was injured on the frontlines in the country’s north, where the army has been fighting Libya-based rebels.

The elder Deby came to power in 1990 at the head of a rebel force that rolled in from neighbouring Sudan.

He was buried last Friday in a state funeral attended by Macron.