The Voice of the suffering in Africa

Religious Freedom. It’s a value that was so important to the Founding Fathers that they dedicated the First Amendment to the Constitution to it. It’s a freedom, though, that many Americans tend to take for granted. Each year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sponsors Religious Freedom Week, to remind Americans of this precious value and to serve as a call to prayer, reflection, and action. The week begins with the feast of the martyr Saints Thomas More and ...

Four Salesian priests and four women religious serve a population of over 90,000 South Sudanese refugees in Palabek, Uganda. For World Refugee Day, June 20, we look at the education and spiritual needs they are addressing, and the ways ACN is helping.  The Salesian priest Fr. Ubaldino Andrade, or “Fr. Ube,” as he is known, laughs a lot. In fact, he laughs so much that one would not imagine that he currently lives in one of the most desolate places ...

IDPs burned alive, shot dead, and macheted Militants massacred up to 200 Christians in Nigeria’s Benue State on the evening of Friday, June 13. They targeted displaced families, set fire to their buildings as people slept, and attacked with machetes anyone who tried to flee. The IDP families were in buildings repurposed as temporary accommodation in the market square in Yelewata, in Guma Local Government Area, near Makurdi, when militants stormed in, shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is great”), before killing ...

Father Luka Jomo, the parish priest in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State in Sudan, was killed during an attack on the city by paramilitary militias. The city has been under siege since April 2023, and he is believed to be the first Catholic priest killed in the conflict. “Dear fathers, sisters, and all the faithful. It is with great sorrow that I write to inform you of Father Luka Jomo’s passing to the Father’s House this morning ...

Fr. Alphonsus Afina was kidnapped on Sunday, June 1, in the Diocese of Maiduguri.   The auxiliary bishop of Maiduguri, Nigeria has called for urgent prayers for one of his priests, who was kidnapped by jihadist terrorists.   In a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), Bishop John Bagna Bakeni said that Fr. Alphonsus Afina was taken, along with other people, by suspected militants of Boko Haram–Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on Sunday, June 1.  Fr. ...

A priest coming back from a memorial service for two slain clergymen shot and injured. A farmer gunned down on his own farm. Three members of a family killed, and the mother left seriously injured. They are just three examples of the “horror” people are enduring in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, according to a local priest. This past weekend, a series of brutal attacks on communities left at least 36 people dead, with several others injured or abducted, according ...