Africa

• 18 October 2003
  AFRICA/TANZANIA - MISSION SUNDAY: REMEMBERING POPE JOHN PAUL II’S VISIT AND CELEBRATING HIS 25TH YEAR OF PONTIFICATE Dar es Salaam (Fides Service) – “Now it is your turn to be witnesses of Christ in Moshi diocese, in Tanzania the continent of Africa and to the ends of the earth”. These were Pope John Paul II’s stirring words du ...
• 15 October 2003
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - NO END TO VIOLENCE IN BURUNDI. IS PEACE PROCESS REAL OR PRETEND? Bujumbura (Fides Service) – “By now we are hardly surprised to hear every morning reports of violence during the previous night” a missionary in Bujumbura tells Fides Service. Dozens have been killed in night time ...
• 15 October 2003
  AFRICA/CONGO - LOCAL CHURCH STEPS OUT TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY: 47,000 ANIMATORS TO DISTRIBUTE PEACE EDUCATION KITS TO BASIC CHURCH COMMUNITIES AND PARISHES Kinshasa (Fides Service) – The Catholic Church in Democratic Congo is giving a hand to support the national transition process with peace education in basic Church communities to sow a culture of peace in all hearts. A ...
• 15 October 2003
  AFRICA/SOMALIA - ALTHOUGH A TRAGEDY, ANNALENA TONELLI’S MURDER BRINGS TO LIGHT SELFLESS SERVICE OF VOLUNTEERS IN SOMALILAND, ALL AFRICA AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, SAY PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE NANSEN AWARD ASSIGNED THIS YEAR TO THE ITALIAN VOLUNTEER Rome (Fides Service) – Following the murder of the Italian voluntary health worker in Somalia, other Nansen Award winners have launched an appeal for more protection for humanitarian workers. In June 2003 Dr Tonelli re ...
• 13 October 2003
  AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - OPPOSITION TO PRESIDENT MUGABE ANNOUNCES WAVE OF STRIKES TO PROTEST GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC POLICY WHICH HAD LED THE COUNTRY TO COLLAPSE Harare (Fides Service) – In Zimbabwe the Opposition is planning series of strikes to protest against President Robert Mugabe’s economic policies. “The country is collapsing” opposition leaders say “the people ...
• 13 October 2003
  AFRICA/SENEGAL - CARDINAL SEPE CLOSES SECAM/SCEAM PLENARY: CHURCH IN AFRICA EVANGELISE YOURSELF AND HELP WITH THE CHURCH’S UNIVERSAL MISSION Dakar (Fides Service) – The Plenary of the Symposium of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Africa and Madagascar SCEAM/SECAM held in Dakar, Senegal attended by 150 Bishop delegates of African Bishops’ Conferences cl ...
• 10 October 2003
  AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - COUP FOILED. REBEL MILITARY CHIEF COMMITS SUICIDE IN PRISON Ouagadougou (Fides Service) – An attempted military coup in Burkina Faso was foiled. According to local sources contacted by Fides Service in Ouagadougou the capital, the police have arrested 12 soldiers of the Preside ...
• 10 October 2003
  AFRICA/SENEGAL - CASAMANCE SECESSIONISTS SAY “ THE WAR HAS ENDED”. PEACE IS NEARER BUT BEFORE WE CAN SPEAK OF PEACE WE MUST WAIT FOR THE RECONCILIATION COMMISSION TO FINISH ITS WORK Dakar (Fides Service) – After 21 years the war over secession for Senegal’s Casamance region territory inserted between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau, has come to an end. The announcement was made by Jean-Marie Biagui ...
• 9 October 2003
  AFRICA/SOMALIA - TWO ARRESTED SUSPECTS MAY BE ANNALENA’S MURDERERS. BUT THIS EXTRAORDINARY CHARITY WORKER WAS IN FRONT LINE TO FIGHT THE BRUTAL CUSTOM OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATIONS, SO? THE SHADOW OF FUNDAMENTALISM? Djibouti (Fides Service) – “It was an execution. Nothing to do with a robbery” Bishop Bertin of Djibouti, apostolic delegate in Mogadishu, tells Fides referring to the murder of Annalena Tonelli on Sunday 5 October ...
• 9 October 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - NORTH EAST CONGO: MAP OF MASSACRES FOLLOWS MAP OF OIL DEPOSITS. PEOPLE CHASED AWAY TO EXPLOIT REGION’S WEALTH AT CHEAP PRICE Bunia (Fides Service) – More details with regard to the massacres in Ituri, north east Congo have reached Fides Service. “On Monday 6 October, in the village of Kachele, 65 people, mostly children women and old peop ...
• 9 October 2003
  AFRICA/CHAD - OIL REVENUE REVOLUTION: BY LAW 80 PERCENT OF OIL INCOME WILL SERVE TO IMPROVE HEALTH, EDUCATION, AGRICULTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURES N’Djamena (Fides Service) – On October 10, in the presence of some 600 guests, Canadian President Idriss Deby will inaugurate a new oil field in southern Chad which is expected to produce 950,000 barrels of oil a day ...
• 8 October 2003
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - AGREEMENT REACHED BY GOVERNMENT AND MAIN REBEL MOVEMENT: REBELS TAKE 4 MINISTRIES AND 40% ARMY OFFICER POSTS Bujumbura (Fides Service) – The Burundian government and main rebel movement Force for Defence of Democracy FDD have reached an agreement. The agreement was signed in Pretoria, South Africa by President Domitien Ndayiz ...
• 8 October 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - NO END TO MASSACRES IN ITURI: 40 CHILDREN MURDERED, GROWING ANXIETY AMONG THE PEOPLE New York (Fides Service) – Anguish grows in the Ituri region of Democratic Congo. According to Fred Eckart, United Nation Organisation spokesman, early on Monday 6th October in Katchele village in Ituri, at least 67 ci ...
• 8 October 2003
  AFRICA/SENEGAL - CHILD PROSTITUTES, CHILD SOLDIERS, SEX TOURISM ARE NEW FORMS OF SLAVERY AND EXPLOITATION IN AFRICA SAYS ARCHBISHOP MONSENGWO PASINYA PRESIDENT OF SCEAM/SECAM Dakar (Fides Service) – “The emotion at this African shrine of black suffering (John Paul II) is strong and intense for us Christians and it is an expression of the special presence of the Holy Spirit, the first prot ...
• 8 October 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION HAS PROMISED TO REMOVE ALL WEAPONS FROM MONROVIA IN 72 HOURS, BUT THE ARMS WILL ONLY BE HIDDEN SOME FEAR Monrovia (Fides Service) - The United Nations Organisation has promised to collect all the weapons from the hands of civilians in Monrovia, capital of Liberia. “The UN leaders promised to make Monrovia a weapon free c ...