Africa

• 15 March 2004
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Tension rises in Ivory Coast amidst rumours of a coup and attacks on magistrates Abidjan (Fides Service) - There is rising tension in Ivory Coast where rumours of possible military coups and attacks on public officials make it difficult to imagine how the situation will evolve in the next few days. ...
• 15 March 2004
  AFRICA/CHAD - “135,000 refugees on the Chad Sudan border must be moved to safety by May before rain season starts” says Laura Boldrini UN High Commission for Refugees. Archbishop of N’Djamena appeals for help N’Djamena (Fides Service)- “There are at least 135,000 refugees camped along the Chad Sudan border who must be moved to safer places before the rain season starts in May when roads will be closed, Laura Boldrini, spo ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/BENIN - “Child labour is a modern form of slavery ” says Father Claude, in front line to fight the plague of street children in Benin Cotonou (Fides Service )- More than 4,000 children in Benin, one of the poorest countries in Africa, are sent to work in other countries. This tragic news was reported to Fides by Father Claude, who has been missionary i ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/ANGOLA - “To eliminate the scourge of child labour parents must be made to realise that that children are not the property of adults ” says Father Benedito who runs a Home for Children in southern Angola Lubango (Fides Service)-“Child labour is a social scourge in Angola involving thousands and thousands of children” Father Benedito Kapingara who opened and runs The Gospel of Life Children’s Home in Lubango dioc ...
• 13 March 2004
  AFRICA/BENIN - Little girls in Cotonou: education changed the lives of many little girls Cotonou (Fides Service) - The number of little girls at the Baraque Rouge, at the centre of the market in Cotonou in Benin, continues to grow. They are learning to be hairdressers and cooks and the programme is funded by ...
• 12 March 2004
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - People of Kivu fear fresh outbreak of fighting: forty illegal arms depots found by police: appeal to international community Bukavu (Fides Service)-“People in Kivu fear a fresh outbreak of fighting; security and stability are still a long way off ”, a local source in Bukavu, southern Kivu (eastern region of Democratic Congo who asked not t ...
• 12 March 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - Closure of supplementary process on the fame of holiness of Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja, “Abuna Messias”, great evangeliser in Ethiopia who defeated smallpox which was decimating the Galla Rome (Fides Service) - In the evening of Wednesday 10 March at the church of San Francesco annexed to the Capuchin Monastery in Frascati (Rome) where he was living at the time of his death and where his earthly remains a ...
• 12 March 2004
  AFRICA/MADAGASCAR - More than 170 people missing and 32 dead in the wake of fierce cyclone “Gafilo” in Madagascar. Antananarivo (Fides Service) - In its wake last week’s cyclone Gafilo left more than 170 people missing and 32 dead. Among the missing persons the crew and 120 passengers of a Comores Islands ferry which sunk in the Mo ...
• 11 March 2004
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - Nigeria’s religious leaders stress the importance of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue for solving serious social problems Abuja (Fides Service)- “Being a good Christian or a good Muslim necessarily implies brotherly love, compassion, truth, justice and equality in relationships with others”. This was affirmed by the Catholic Bishops of ...
• 11 March 2004
  AFRICA/SIERRA LEONE - “The commencement of the work of a Special Court for Sierra Leone is another step in the process of a return to normality” says Catholic Bishop of Makeni Freetown (Fides Service)- “This is another step in the process of a return to normality for Sierra Leone” Bishop Giorgio Biguzzi, Bishop of Makeni, told Fides referring to the official opening yesterday, 10 March, of ...
• 11 March 2004
  AFRICA/CONGO RD - “Allô Elections”: new Catholic two-monthly periodical will follow electoral campaign preparing for Congo’s elections in 2005 Kinshasa (Fides Service)- Provide media support for various initiatives taken by the local Catholic Church in view of elections scheduled for 2005: this is the objective of “Allô Elections”, a brand new two-monthly ...
• 10 March 2004
  AFRICA/MADAGASCAR - Gafilo cyclone swings around to strike Madagascar a second time. Unconfirmed reports of Ferry missing off Malagasy coast Antananarivo (Fides Service)-“The news of a ferry shipwrecked yesterday 9 March in the Mozambique Channel in the midst of the cyclone raging in the area, has not been confirmed” Father Cosimo Alvati, Director of Rad ...
• 10 March 2004
  AFRICA/CONGO - A year after the peace pact which put an end to hostilities in the Pool region, government takes stock of progress made Brazzaville (Agenzia Fides)- On March 7, a year after the signing of a peace agreement between the government and Ninja, rebels led by Frederic Bitsangou or Pastor Ntoumi as he likes to be called, the state minister for ...
• 9 March 2004
  EUROPE/ITALY - 600 million of the world’s people suffer from some sort of disability: 80% live in developing countries. “Cuamm-Doctors with Africa” discuss the situation Rome (Fides) - The World Health Organisation estimates that in the world about 600 million people (25% of the world’s population) suffer from one or another type of disability. Of these 80% live in developing countries ...
• 9 March 2004
  AFRICA - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers appeals to international community to support the repatriation of millions of African refugees Rome (Fides Service)- An appeal to the international community to guarantee the solidarity and support necessary to break the cycle of violence, poverty and desperation afflicting Africa was made by the United Nations Hi ...