Africa

• 7 January 2004
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - IN BURUNDI PENDULUM OF WAR SWINGS DANGEROUSLY HIGH. NUNCIO’S KILLERS WERE PROFESSIONALS. TELLTALE SIGNS ON AMBUSHED CAR Bujumbura (Fides Service) - The situation in Burundi is still one of insecurity despite the announcement on 5 January that the FNL National Liberation Front rebels were ready to meet President Domitien Ndayizeye to start ...
• 7 January 2004
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - REBEL MINISTERS AGREE TO SIT WITH GOVERNMENT DESPITE FEAR THAT REFERENDUM WILL ENABLE PRESIDENT TO QUASH NEW LAWS WITHOUT PARLIAMENT’S CONSENT. GROWING CONCERN AMONG DESCENDANTS OF NON NATIONALS Abidjan (Fides Service)- “The rebels decision to take their seats with other ministers of the national unity government is certainly a good sign and let’s hope it gives a push to the peace process which stalled some ...
• 2 January 2004
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - APOSTOLIC NUNCIO MURDERED BECAUSE HE WAS WORKING FOR PEACE IN BURUNDI Bujumbura (Fides Service )- New details have emerged with regard to the murder of Archbishop Michael Aidan Courtney, Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi, on 29 December in an ambush at 50 km from the capital, Bujumbura. “The A ...
• 29 December 2003
  AFRICA/CAMEROON - GERMAN CLARETIAN MISSIONARY FOUND MURDERED ON CHRISTMAS EVE Yaounde (Fides Service) – On Christmas Eve German Claretian missionary, Father Anton Probst, was found dead at the Claretian Novitiate at Akono about 60 kilometres south of the capital Yaounde. The body of the priest, ...
• 23 December 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - MISSIONARIES SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH REFUGEES, “THIS IS MORE LIKE THE LORD’S FIRST COMING IN HUMILITY AND POVERTY Monrovia (Fides Service)- “Sadly we will celebrate the coming of Holy Peace this year without peace” Consolata Missionary Sisters Harbel, 50 km south of Monrovia, capital of Liberia told Fides. “The disarmament pro ...
• 23 December 2003
  AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - MAY CHRISTMAS OPEN HEARTS AND EXTEND SCIENTIFIC HORIZONS TO EMBRACE AND CARE FOR ALL WHO SUFFER: CHAPLAIN OF YALGADO OUEDRAOGO HOSPITAL Ouagadougou (Fides Service) – Camillian Father Edgard Yameogo is chaplain at Yalgado Ouedraogo state hospital in Ouagadougou and director of the Camillian Centre for Health Care Pastoral in Burkina Faso. On the occasio ...
• 19 December 2003
  AFRICA/ANGOLA - SALESIANS ASSIST THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES: HUMANITARIAN AID DOES NOT CLASH WITH PASTORAL MINISTRY AND MANY LAPSE CATHOLICS RETURN TO THE FAITH AFTER YEARS OF Lwena (Fides Service/Ans) – Twenty years of civil war left Angola devastated, mourning its dead, wasting away from malnutrition, faced with destruction. It is estimated that at least 15 million anti-personnel mines sti ...
• 19 December 2003
  AFRICA/MADAGASCAR - PRISON SENTENCE FOR FORMER PRESIDENT IS A BOOST FOR THOSE WHO DEMAND JUSTICE FOR PAST CRIMES, BUT THE PROBLEM OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION REMAINS TO BE SOLVED Antananarivo (Fides Service )- “The sentence is a boost for those who demand justice for crimes committed in the past ” Father Cosimo Alvati, head of Radio Don Bosco in Madagascar told Fides with regard to a five yea ...
• 19 December 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - AFTER SO MANY CHRISTMASSES OF WAR AT LAST CONGO PREPARES FOR A CHRISTMAS AT PEACE: ON 1 JANUARY A NEW ‘MOTHER OF GOD’ PARISH WILL OPEN IN MUHUNGU ENTRUSTED TO XAVERIAN MISSIONARIES Bukavu (Fides Service ) - Father Luigi Lo Stocco, Xaverian missionary head of Radio Maria Queen of Peace in Bukavu, Democratic Congo, sent Fides a report on preparations for Christmas. “After many Christmasses with th ...
• 18 December 2003
  AFRICA/UGANDA - ARCHBISHOP OF GULU ILLUSTRATES FOR FIDES JOINT CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO WAR STRICKEN PEOPLE IN NORTHERN UGANDA: “TRUST IN GOD, PRAY CONSTANTLY FOR PEACE WHICH COMES ONLY FROM GOD”. Gulu (Fides Service)-“The purpose was to launch a Christmas message of hope and reconciliation” Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu (Northern Uganda), told Fides with regard to a visit of solidarity made by religio ...
• 18 December 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST – SIGNS OF HOPE FOR PEACE, BUT CARE MUST BE TAKEN TO PREVENT PREVAILING OF LOGIC OF VIOLENCE Abidjan (Fides Service)- “We hope this Christmas will be different from the last when because of the curfew we had to celebrate midnight Mass at three in the afternoon” a local Church source in Abidjan told Fides. In ...
• 17 December 2003
  AFRICA/ETHIOPIA – ALL IS QUIET IN GAMBELLA AFTER RECENT ETHNIC CLASHES. AT LEAST 200 HOMELESS PEOPLE FIND SHELTER AT SALESIAN MISSION AND HUNDREDS MORE ARE IN DANGER OF STARVATION Addis Ababa (Fides Service)- All is quiet in Gambella, in south east Ethiopia, the scene of ethnic clashes last week (see Fides 16 December 2003). “Army troops dispatched by the government restored order and are now pa ...
• 16 December 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - PEACE AMONG POLITICAL LEADERS MUST BE FOLLOWED BY PEACE AMONG HEARTS Abidjan (Fides Service) - Slowly but surely withdrawal of heavy arms continues from the strip of no man’s land which divides army controlled territory from the zone in the hands of the New Forces rebels. Fides was told ...
• 16 December 2003
  AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - AFRICA STILL IN THE GRIP OF TRIBALISM: RIVAL ETHNIC GROUPS CLASH IN WESTERN ETHIOPIA. MISSIONARIES ASSIST REFUGEES Addis Ababa (Fides Service)- It is still very difficult to have a precise picture of what is happening in the Gambella region, about 400 km west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for several days the scene of tribal ...
• 15 December 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - PAUSE IN UN DISARMAMENT PROGRAMME. BAD PLANNING CAUSES MALCONTENT AND SHOOTING: TOO MANY TROOPS WANTING TO TURN IN RIFLES IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY AND EDUCATION Monrovia (Agenzia Fides)- “It was a false start” Father Mauro Armanino, SMA Provincial Superior in Monrovia, told Fides with regard to the pause in the Liberian disarmament process ordered by the United Nations after ...