Africa

• 11 September 2003
  AFRICA/BURUNDI - GOVERNMENT AND MAIN REBEL GROUP MAY BE NEAR TO AGREEMENT Bujumbura (Fides Service) – Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye and rebel leader Pierre Nkrurunziza, head of FDD, Forces for Defence of Democracy, will meet for talks on Sunday 14 September in Dar es Salaam, Tanzani ...
• 11 September 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - RE-OPENING OF IVORY COAST/BURKINA FASO BORDER HAILED WITH SATISFACTION Abidjan (Fides Service) – “Yesterday we were present at the ceremony for the re-opening of the Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso border and we saw the joy and relief on faces on both sides of the frontier” PIME missionaries ...
• 10 September 2003
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - AT LEAST 5000 HOMELESS AFTER FLOODS IN NORTH EASTERN NIGERIA Lagos (Fides Service) – As many as 5,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of floods in Kaduna state in north east Nigeria. Local church forces contacted by Fides Service say torrential rains began s ...
• 10 September 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - SOME OF THE 750,000 REFUGEES IN MONROVIA ARE RETURNING TO THEIR VILLAGES Monrovia (Fides Service) – “The situation in Monrovia is gradually returning to normal” Father Mauro Armanini, of the Society for African Missions, tells Fides Service. The Italian missionary has worked in Monrovia ...
• 9 September 2003
  AFRICA/SUDAN - SECESSIONISTS ACCUSE GOVERNMENT OF VIOLATING TREATY IN WEST SUDAN Khartoum (Fides Service) – The treaty signed on 3 September in Darfur, eastern Sudan between the government of the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement SLM, has fallen through. On September 6 the SLM rebels said that two ...
• 9 September 2003
  AFRICA/NIGERIA - THROWING THE FIRST STONE AND THROWING THE FIRST SATELLITE Lagos (Fides Service) – Africa is more than ever today a land of contradiction, swinging between a search for modernity often imposed by the West and a return to old customs and laws which violate human rights. Emblem ...
• 9 September 2003
  AFRICA/UGANDA - YET ANOTHER MISSIONARY ATTACKED IN NORTHERN UGANDA: ITALIAN COMBONI MISSIONARY FATHER MAFFEIS Kampala (Fides Service) – The conditions of Italian Comboni Missionary, Father Guglielmo Maffeis, attacked by bandits at Iceme Catholic Mission in northern Uganda on 6 September are improving, his confreres at Lira mis ...
• 8 September 2003
  AFRICA/RWANDA - KINYAMATEKA CATHOLIC PAPER COMMENTS ON RECENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS Rome (Fides Service) – Rwandans gave a 95% victory to President Paul Kagame in elections on 25 August. We publish here an article on the vote printed in Kinyamateka Catholic paper in French. Here is our English transla ...
• 5 September 2003
  AFRICA/BURKINA FASO - SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATE RISES DESPITE DIFFICULT ECONOMIC SITUATION Ouagadougou (Fides Service) - Burkina Faso, listed among the world’s poorest countries, is living one of the worst economic crisis in its history. In fact the number of Burkina people living below the poverty line in ...
• 5 September 2003
  AFRICA/IVORY COAST - PEACE HAS DIFFICULTY GETTING STARTED, SPECTRE OF FOOD SHORTAGE IN REBEL CONTROLLED AREAS THREATENS Abidjan (Fides Service) – “The peace process has certainly come to an abrupt halt” a local Church source tells Fides Service after the discovery of a plan to assassinate President Gbagbo. The detection late last m ...
• 5 September 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - AT LAST EMPOWERED TO PROTECT CIVILIANS AND STOP FIGHTING BETWEEN REBEL GROUPS NEW UN MISSION DEPLOYED: BUT SOME WONDER WHY MOST ARE NON-FRENCH SPEAKING SOLDIERS Bunia (Fides Service) – “So far all the UN peacekeepers have done is to go on a fact-finding mission to Fataki” local sources in Bunia, main city of Ituri in Northern Congo, tell Fides Service. “UN Mission troops ...
• 4 September 2003
  AFRICA/MOZAMBIQUE - IN MAPUTO DOCTORS, NURSES, LABORATORY AND SOCIAL WORKERS ATTEND FIRST INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON DRUG RESOURCES ENHANCEMENT AGAINST AIDS Rome (Fides Service) - From 20 to 29 August 85 doctors, nurses social workers, laboratory workers and biology experts from Malawi, Tanzania, Angola, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique attended the first course in Drug Resourc ...
• 4 September 2003
  AFRICA/LIBERIA - TAYLOR HAS GONE BUT HIS MILITIA ARE STILL RAMPANT. CONSOLATA MISSIONARIES LAUNCH APPEAL: “ FOOD SHORTAGE IN BUCHANAN NOW CRITICAL ” Monrovia (Fides Service)- “There is little or no food in Buchanan”, the Consolata missionaries in Harbel, 50 km south of Monrovia, capital of Liberia, tell Fides Service. Buchanan, the principal port, is about 90 km ...
• 4 September 2003
  AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - CATHOLIC CHURCH DEEPLY CONCERNED FOR SITUATION KISANGANI, ONCE CONGO’S THIRD LARGEST CITY Kinshasa (Fides Service )- The Catholic Church in Congo has voiced deep concern for the situation in Kisangani, in the north eastern part of Democratic Congo. This is reported in the latest issue of DIA local church bull ...
• 4 September 2003
  AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - OPPOSITION ELECTION VICTORY SHOWS PEOPLE’S WILL FOR CHANGE Harare (Fides Service )- “The results of the recent municipal elections in Zimbabwe demonstrate that the people want a change, says a local Church source who asks not to be named for security reasons. Municipal electio ...