Africa

• 26 March 2010
  AFRICA/CONGO DR - 100 billion barrels of oil still untapped in Africa, but will future oil revenues be used to improve the living conditions of local people? Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – Over 100 billion barrels of oil. This is the amount of oil reserves in Africa according to the 4th Congress of the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), which opened March 24 in Ki ...
• 26 March 2010
  AFRICA/NIGER - New health centers help fight malnutrition of 200,000 children Niamey (Agenzia Fides) – Most government health centers in Niger are not ready to meet the needs of the number of malnourished children calculated by the Ministry of Health. An estimated at least 200,000 children need ...
• 26 March 2010
  AFRICA - Polluted water: silent killer that claims the lives of 1.8 children under 5 every year Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) – Every 20 seconds a child dies of an illness related to water pollution, every year about 1.8 million of them under age five. These alarming figures emerge from the last report of the Unit ...
• 25 March 2010
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - Archbishop of Jos: “It was politics rather than religion that caused the fighting for years. They fought not because they wanted to be holy Catholics or Protestants but because of political power. It is time to liberate religion from the manipulative hands of people who when they fail, use religion as an excuse for their failure.” Jos (Agenzia Fides) - “Since 1994 the wind of ethnic, political, social and religious discord has blown throughout Plateau State resulting in depressing loss of lives and properties. Is God testing our faith so as to p ...
• 25 March 2010
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - Cardinal Turkson, representing the Holy Father, joins local Church in commemorating victims of the Plateau State clashes Jos (Agenzia Fides) – On March 21, a Mass was celebrated at St. Fidelis Catholic Church, at Dogon Na Hawa (about 20 miles from Jos, capital of Plateau State, central Nigeria), where Fides has learned from Archbishop Ig ...
• 24 March 2010
  AFRICA/DR CONGO - “LRA should be considered a terrorist group,” Bishop of Dorma-Dungu in northeast Congo tells Fides Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – During the night between March 20 and 21, the Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked the town Bamokandi, near the town of Dungu, 780 km north-east of Kisangani, the capit ...
• 24 March 2010
  AFRICA - Increasing prices, lack of infrastructure, closing borders affect 10 million in Sahel Region Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) – West Africa can meet its food needs through regional trade, most agricultural experts say, if countries keep their borders open for the free flow of staple grains, especially in times of ...
• 24 March 2010
  AFRICA/GUINEA BISSAU - 25th Anniversary of World Youth Day in Ziguichor: a special event for Catholics of Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, and Senegal Bissau (Agenzia Fides) – Bishop Pedro Zilli of Bafatá will attend the celebration of World Youth Day 2010 being held in Ziguichor (in Casamance, Senegal), March 26 to 28. This is what was stated in a note sent to Fide ...
• 23 March 2010
  AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICA - Bishop of Bangassou describes most recent Ugandan rebel attack as “unprecedented violence” in correspondence with Fides Bangassou (Agenzia Fides) - "The rebels used an unprecedented level of violence on the poor defenseless civilians. They hurt the people first and then ended their lives with machetes," Fides is told by His Excellency Bis ...
• 23 March 2010
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - US Bishops express solidarity with Nigerian Church and people Jos (Agenzia Fides) - “We share the concern that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria articulated in your February 2010 Pastoral Letter regarding the acts of hostility that have occurred among ethnic and religio ...
• 23 March 2010
  AFRICA/KENYA - Healthcare needed, cholera risks spreading across country Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – According to the latest findings of the Ministry of Health in Kenya, there are now 15 districts severely affected by cholera in the country, with 663 confirmed cases since January, and some 15 ...
• 22 March 2010
  AFRICA/MALAWI - Bishops of Malawi work for equal opportunities for men and women Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides) – "Women have the right to equal opportunities in education, training, employment, remuneration, inheritance and owning property," says a note from the Bishops' Conference of Malawi, reported b ...
• 22 March 2010
  AFRICA/SOMALIA - Significant geopolitical maneuvers taking place as Mogadishu awaits government operation Mogadishu (Agenzia Fides) – The Somali capital of Mogadishu lives awaiting the announced offensive attack of government troops on the Shebaab militias, considered sympathetic to the international Jihad movement. The of ...
• 20 March 2010
  AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - “The mission is at the heart of the Church's pastoral activity.” Fides interviews the President of the Bishops' Conference of Burkina Faso-Niger Rome (Agenzia Fides) – "Our Church is strongly oriented towards the mission and committed to helping create a cohesive and united society," Fides is told by Archbishop Seraphin Rouamba, Archbishop of Koupéla and Presi ...
• 20 March 2010
  AFRICA/KENYA - Auxiliar Bishop of Lodwar appointed Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Pope Benedict XVI, on March 20, 2010, appointed Dominic Kimengich, Vicar of the Tribune of the Diocese of Nakuru, as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Lodwar (Kenya), assigning him the t ...