Africa

• 1 October 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - COUNTRY IS NO MAN’S LAND RULED BY BANDITS Abidjan (Fides Service) – Fresh outbreak of fighting in central Bouake. “It is impossible to say what is happening - local Fides sources say – it is too dangerous even to go out of the house. What is certain is tha ...
• 30 September 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - AWAITED WITH HOPE AND CONFIDENCE 15,000 UN PEACE KEEPERS, LARGEST UN FORCE. DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD AND MEDICINE NOW REGULAR Monrovia (Fides Service) – UN peace keeping troops are about to deploy in Liberia. The first UN soldiers will arrive tomorrow October 1 and at the same time 3,500 ECOMIL African peace keepers will be integrated into th ...
• 30 September 2003
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - HUTU FIGHTING HUTU. THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS IN FLIGHT. UNLESS PEACE COMES SOON PEACEKEEPERS WILL BE WITHDRAWN Bujumbura (Fides Service) – For two weeks there has been fierce fighting around Bujumbura the capital of Burundi. Local sources tell Fides Service that the conflict is between FDD Forces for the Defence of Democracy an ...
• 29 September 2003
  AFRICA/ANGOLA - RE-ORGANISATION OF FARMS AND SCHOOLS, PRIORITIES FOR SLOW REBUILDING OF ANGOLA. LOCAL CATHOLIC CHURCH CONTRIBUTES Luanda (Fides Service) – “The country still feels the effects of so many years of civil war and hardship. People are disappointed with the government which promises a lot but does little. Nevertheless there are some ...
• 26 September 2003
  AFRICA/SUDAN - MIRACULOUS HEALING OF LUBNA ABDEL AZIA, PRACTISING MUSLIM WOMAN, OPENED WAY TO COMBONI’S CANONISATION Khartoum (Fides Service) – On 11 November 1997, Lubna Abdel Aziz, aged 38, mother of four children, was admitted to St Mary’s hospital in Khartoum run by the Comboni Sisters, for the birth of her fifth child with a c ...
• 26 September 2003
  AFRICA - ELECTRICITY ADVANCES IN AFRICA. POWER DOUBLED IN CONGO. CONTINENT’S HYDRO-ELECTRIC RESOURCES ARE TURNED TO ITS OWN ADVANTAGE AT LAST Rome (Fides Service) – Projects for providing electricity throughout sub-Saharan Africa are making progress. On 23 September at Imboulou in Republic of Congo work began to construct the largest hydroelectric plant the ...
• 26 September 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - NO SIGN OF PEACE FOR EASTERN CONGO! GROWING FEAR OF FRESH VIOLENCE Kinshasa (Fides Service) – Rumours of imminent new outbreaks of violence continue to spread in south and north Kivu, region in Democratic Congo bordering on Rwanda and Burundi. Local Church sources contacted by Fides S ...
• 25 September 2003
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - AMINA WINS HER APPEAL: “THIS IS A GOOD DAY FOR NIGERIA” SAYS CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF JOS Lagos (Fides Service) – “This is a good day for Nigeria” Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos told Fides Service, after Amina, a northern Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery, won ...
• 25 September 2003
  AFRICA/KENYA - SINCE MID 1980 AIDS HAS KILLED 1.5 MILLION KENYANS BUT SENEGAL REPORTS 2% LESS AIDS CASES COMPARED TO LAST YEAR Rome (Fides Service) – The 13th International Conference on AIDS held in Nairobi closed on 26 September. The meeting was attended by many international personalities. Testimony given at the meeting included comforting ...
• 25 September 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - TOO MANY PROFIT FROM A COUNTRY CUT IN TWO Abidjan (Fides Service) – “We are all very anxious to see the outcome of the government meeting this morning which rebels have refused to attend” local Church sources tell Fides asking not to be named for security ...
• 24 September 2003
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - THE LOCAL CHURCH IS A PEACEMAKER Rome (Fides Service) – “My concern is the good of all the people entrusted to my care, Catholics and non” Bishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Lafia in the Nigerian state of Nasarawa told Fides Service. The Bishop on a vi ...
• 24 September 2003
  AFRICA - DIFFICULT PATHS TO PEACE Rome (Fides Service) – Africa is known to the general public for its humanitarian emergencies, its wars, its calamities. For a moment media attention is riveted on the continent, humanitarian organisations go into acti ...
• 23 September 2003
  AFRICA/MOZAMBIQUE - BISHOPS NAME NEW CONFERENCE OFFICES AFTER JOHN PAUL II: BISHOPS’ MESSAGE FOR 25 YEARS OF PONTIFICATE AND 15th ANNIVERSARY OF PAPAL VISIT Maputo (Fides Service) – With a symposium on 17 October, a special mass of Thanksgiving on 19 October, and the assembly of the Bishops’ Conference 21-24 October the Catholic Church in Mozambique will mark two major a ...
• 23 September 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - FOLLOWING OPENING OF BORDERS IVORY COAST/BURKINA FASO TRAIN SERVICES RESUME. BUT MONTHS AFTER TREATY STOPPED YEAR LONG CIVIL WAR SITUATION STILL FAR FROM NORMAL Abidjan (Fides Service) – Railway services between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso have been resumed. On Sunday 21 September the first train from Burkina Faso arrived in the Ivory Coast port city of Bobo Dioulasso. “I ...
• 23 September 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - LIBERIA’S DIFFICULT JOURNEY TO PEACE Monrovia (Fides Service) – “We are moving towards the installation of the transition government and the situation in Monrovia is gradually returning to normal” Father Mauro Armanino, in the Liberian capital tells F ...