Africa

• 23 March 2004
  AFRICA/GUINEA BISSAU - Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate start new mission in Guinea Bissau geared for dialogue with Muslims and Animists Bissau (Fides Service)-The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate open a new mission in Guinea Bissau at Farim on the border with Senegal. The mission is run by two priests, Father Celso Corbioli and Father Carlo Andolfi ...
• 22 March 2004
  AFRICA/CHAD -100,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad receive concrete international solidarity. Jesuit Refugee Service and UNHCR provide assistance and safety N’Djamena (Fides Service) - There are still 100,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad. Various international agencies are intervening to provide assistance. “We are working with the N’Djamena diocesan Caritas office” F ...
• 22 March 2004
  AFRICA/GREAT LAKES REGION - National armies where former tribal enemies march shoulder to shoulder are one condition for peace in Great Lakes countries Rome (Fides Service)- Building national armies with men enlisted from all the warring parties is one condition for restoring peace in the countries of Africa’s Great Lakes region. At present Democratic Republic of Cong ...
• 18 March 2004
  AFRICA/SUDAN - UN High Commission for Refugees Unite prepares to assist repatriation of more than 3.6 million Sudanese refugees Rome (Fides Service)- “We thought it was important to find out how refugees felt with regard to repatriation” said Dennis McNamara, Inspector general of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Unite UNHCR, wh ...
• 17 March 2004
  AFRICA/KENYA - Discussion about presidential powers: government withdraws from National Constitutional Reform Conference Nairobi (Fides Service)-“This is a difficult time in Kenya’s political life” a local Church source in Nairobi told Fides with regard to the stall in the debate on the reform of the Constitution since the government ...
• 16 March 2004
  AFRICA/ CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - “After a year of changed regime, social and economic situation still uncertain” says Bishop Mathos Auxiliary of Bangui Bangui (Fides Service)- A year after President Ange-Felix Patasse was forced to leave the country and President François Bozize took power, the Central African Republic has yet to find stability. “The whole country is ...
• 16 March 2004
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - National Liberation Forces rebels continue to fight to prove only they can restore peace in Burundi Bujumbura (Fides Service)-“This is an inextricable skein, let’s hope that with time and infinite patience Burundi will find the way out of this spiral of violence” a local Church source in Burundi told Fides, with ...
• 15 March 2004
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Tension rises in Ivory Coast amidst rumours of a coup and attacks on magistrates Abidjan (Fides Service) - There is rising tension in Ivory Coast where rumours of possible military coups and attacks on public officials make it difficult to imagine how the situation will evolve in the next few days. ...
• 15 March 2004
  AFRICA/CHAD - “135,000 refugees on the Chad Sudan border must be moved to safety by May before rain season starts” says Laura Boldrini UN High Commission for Refugees. Archbishop of N’Djamena appeals for help N’Djamena (Fides Service)- “There are at least 135,000 refugees camped along the Chad Sudan border who must be moved to safer places before the rain season starts in May when roads will be closed, Laura Boldrini, spo ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/BENIN - “Child labour is a modern form of slavery ” says Father Claude, in front line to fight the plague of street children in Benin Cotonou (Fides Service )- More than 4,000 children in Benin, one of the poorest countries in Africa, are sent to work in other countries. This tragic news was reported to Fides by Father Claude, who has been missionary i ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/ANGOLA - “To eliminate the scourge of child labour parents must be made to realise that that children are not the property of adults ” says Father Benedito who runs a Home for Children in southern Angola Lubango (Fides Service)-“Child labour is a social scourge in Angola involving thousands and thousands of children” Father Benedito Kapingara who opened and runs The Gospel of Life Children’s Home in Lubango dioc ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/BENIN - Little girls in Cotonou: education changed the lives of many little girls Cotonou (Fides Service) - The number of little girls at the Baraque Rouge, at the centre of the market in Cotonou in Benin, continues to grow. They are learning to be hairdressers and cooks and the programme is funded by ...
• 12 March 2004
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - People of Kivu fear fresh outbreak of fighting: forty illegal arms depots found by police: appeal to international community Bukavu (Fides Service)-“People in Kivu fear a fresh outbreak of fighting; security and stability are still a long way off ”, a local source in Bukavu, southern Kivu (eastern region of Democratic Congo who asked not t ...
• 12 March 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - Closure of supplementary process on the fame of holiness of Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja, “Abuna Messias”, great evangeliser in Ethiopia who defeated smallpox which was decimating the Galla Rome (Fides Service) - In the evening of Wednesday 10 March at the church of San Francesco annexed to the Capuchin Monastery in Frascati (Rome) where he was living at the time of his death and where his earthly remains a ...
• 12 March 2004
  AFRICA/MADAGASCAR - More than 170 people missing and 32 dead in the wake of fierce cyclone “Gafilo” in Madagascar. Antananarivo (Fides Service) - In its wake last week’s cyclone Gafilo left more than 170 people missing and 32 dead. Among the missing persons the crew and 120 passengers of a Comores Islands ferry which sunk in the Mo ...