Africa

• 22 February 2005
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - “More financial transparency or aid will stop”: World Bank issues stern warning to Liberia’s interim government Monrovia (Fides Service)- The World Bank issued a serious warning to Liberia to take steps to prevent corruption and show more financial transparency. This emerged after a visit to Monrovia by Shengman Zhang World Bank m ...
• 22 February 2005
  AFRICA/UGANDA - Government cease fire expires today but “negotiations continue” says Internal Minister Kampala (Fides Service) - The government’s cease fire with the Lord’s Resistance Army LRA rebels in northern Uganda ends today, (see Fides 17 February 2005). However a government spokesman said talks with the guerril ...
• 22 February 2005
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - For the first time in 9 years 50,000 mothers take to the streets to celebrate international Women’s Day in a city for years at the centre of a conflict whose principal victims were women of all ages Bukavu (Fides Service)- “At last after 9 years, yesterday 8 March, women were free to celebrate international Women’s Day in the streets” said Xaverian missionary Fr. Luigi Lo Stocco, director of Radio Maria Malia ...
• 21 February 2005
  AFRICA - New look for United Nations Security Council: Africa wants to have its say Mbamane (Fides Service) - Foreign ministers of 15 African countries are discussing how Africa can have more weight in the reform of the United Nations Security Council. The ministers, gathered in Mbamane, Swaziland for a ...
• 21 February 2005
  AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - 32 countries invited to send observers for March elections in Zimbabwe Harare (Fides Service)- Observers from 32 countries will monitor legislative elections on 31 March in Zimbabwe. The news was announced by Zimbabwe’s foreign minister Stan Mudenge. The minister said President Robert Mu ...
• 21 February 2005
  AFRICA/TOGO - Togolese parliament holds special session: are we nearing a turning point in the crisis? Lome (Fides Service)- There is expectancy in Togo for the outcome of a special session of the National Assembly convoked today 21 February by deputy speaker Abbas Banfo. On the agenda changes to articles in the Constitut ...
• 21 February 2005
  AFRICA/SUDAN - Heritage of war in southern Sudan: 4 million displaced persons and more than 500,000 refugees neighbouring countries Rome (Fides Service)- The week long mission of deputy High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees Mrs Wendy Chamberlin to southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya to assess the enormous needs in southern Sudan for the r ...
• 18 February 2005
  AFRICA/SUDAN - “We have inherited 20 years of war and 2 million dead” Pastoral Letter from Catholic Bishops of Sudan Khartoum (Fides Service) - “True peace is much more than the absence of war - the Catholic Bishops of Sudan wrote in a Pastoral Letter issued on the occasion of the recent Peace Agreement which ended civil strife in so ...
• 18 February 2005
  AFRICA/GHANA - “Unemployment, illiteracy, clashes among 22 different ethnic groups are main obstacles for evangelisation” says Bishop Naameh of Damongo diocese in northern Ghana Accra (Fides Service)- “The presence of 22 different ethnic groups in our diocese is a problem but it is also a reason for hope for the future” Bishop Philip Naameh of Damongo diocese in northern Ghana told Fides. ...
• 17 February 2005
  AFRICA/ANGOLA - Italian Capuchins in Venice celebrate 100 birthday of most senior confrere in the world. Testimonial of a life given for Africa Rome (Fides Service) - On February 12 the Capuchin community in Conegliano nel Veneto celebrated the 100 birthday of Father Alberto Bertoldo, the most senior Capuchin in the world. “Father Alberto wins hearts with his ...
• 17 February 2005
  AFRICA/UGANDA - Ever more isolated LRA rebels threaten to kill negotiator in favour of surrender: the army comes to his rescue. A comment for Fides Gulu (Fides Service). “This is a highly positive fact which could mark a turning point in the conflict” a local Church source in Gulu (Northern Uganda) told Fides with regard to the surrender of Sam Kolo, chief negot ...
• 16 February 2005
  AFRICA/TOGO - “We are waiting to hear a government statement that the crisis is over” says Fides source in Togo Lome (Fides Service)- “We are waiting to hear a government statement that a positive solution has been found” said a local Church source in Lomé, capital of Togo, a country in crisis over the successor of its Presid ...
• 16 February 2005
  AFRICA/GHANA - Exploited child workers on Lake Volta rescued and rehabilitated by international programme Accra (Fides Service)- Another 114 children have been rescued from forced labour in Central Ghana thanks to a programme of the International Organisation for Migration IOM. The children were victims of traffickers withou ...
• 16 February 2005
  AFRICA/GUINEA BISSAU - School meals, health and education in Sahel: Italian initiative in support World Food Programme. 1.250 tonnes of rice for about 200,000 people Rome (Fides Service) - According to a Report on Millennium Development Goals in Guinea Bissau 124 in every 1000 children die before the age of 1 and 203 before the age of five. Infant mortality affects 822 out of every ...
• 16 February 2005
  AFRICA/UGANDA - Missionaries in northern Uganda build home to protect for high-school girls from violence Gulu (Fides Service)- “I am here with the workmen, we are building a home for high-school girl pupils”. Loud and clear the voice of a missionary working in northern Uganda reaches Fides from the most forgotten region ...