An African bishop who was imprisoned and tortured during his country’s brutal civil war has been honoured at Durham University.
Bishop Francis Loyo, a former Durham University student, returned to Durham during a visit marking 40 years of a friendship link between his home country and Salisbury.
An event was held in his honour at the university’s St John’s College.
During Sudan’s civil war, Bishop Loyo was imprisoned and tortured and his family fled into the bush. They thought one another dead for many years, before they were eventually reunited by relief agencies.
The second most senior clergyman in the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Bishop Loyo is still involved with the Durham-based Edith Jackson Trust, which paid for the building of a school in his home town of Rokon.
Rev Canon Dr Alan Bartlett, his former tutor at Durham, said: “Bishop Francis is a visionary man who dreams of free, educated, confident people turning the oil rich Southern Sudan into a peaceful prosperous society.
“He has achieved a lot, with very little, and his visit to Durham is an inspiration to the trust and provided an opportunity to hear a little more about this humble, yet remarkable man.”