A Rwandan Catholic priest, Father Viateur Banyangandora who was deported from Zambia has reportedly returned to the southern African nation.
Zambian authorities in November revoked the deportation of Fr Banyangandora after “extensive consultations”.
Fr Banyangadora was received at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on Monday by senior Catholic leaders from Eastern Province, where he was based before deportation.
Neither Fr Banyangadora nor Catholic officials addressed journalists at the airport.
The deportation of the Father Banyangandora in August last year angered Catholics who exerted consistent pressure on government to revoke the order.
His deportation was shrouded in a reason which was not clearly explained apart from Home Affairs minister Edgar Lungu saying he was “preaching messages likely to incite people to rise against the government”.
The decision was seen as a move by President Michael Sata’s regime to gag dissent.
The Catholic Church is seen to be “sympathetic” to President Sata’s regime, a first Catholic to be leader of a predominantly Christian nation.
Father Banyangandora who was based in eastern Zambia’s Lundazi district was deported after he criticised the government over the handling of the prices of cotton and the growing inequality in the southern African nation during a church service.
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