Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides)- Various countries in Africa are preparing to celebrate a Day for Peace in the World on 21 September. In Kenya, on 18 September the wife of the President Lucy Kibaki will lead a march for peace CISA Catholic news agency in Nairobi reports. The march, which has been widely publicised, is organised by NGOs and various religious movements. One of the organisers is Radio Waumini the only Catholic broadcaster in Kenya and Christ the King Catholic parish in Kibera.
In Uganda, the Day will be celebrated in Gulu, where the people have been terrorised by the militiamen of the Lord’s resistance Army for 18 years. These militia are responsible for murdering thousands of innocent civilians and kidnapping thousands of children to use as soldiers. Initiatives for peace in Gulu will include a meeting on how to promote education to peace and another meeting to discuss the media and peace.
An international World Day for Peace promoted by the United Nations is every year in September. The first one was celebrated in 1982. Pope John Paul II has always adhered to the initiative issuing a special message for the Church's own day for Peace in the World on Juanary 1st every year.
Africa is still suffering from civil wars in Sudan, Democratic Congo, Northern Uganda, and Burundi as well as recently ended conflicts in Ivory Coast, Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone and tragedies such as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and en endless border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (1998-2000) in which more than 200,000 were killed. The continent is still strewn with mines left in the world war II by British, German and Italian forces, as it emerged during a conferences on anti-personnel mines being held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 17/9/2004 righe 26 parole 313)
