The Voice of the suffering in Africa

Ongoing attacks point to need for greater security. Local bishop appealing to government for more military camps. Some members of the group kidnapped from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria, were kept in cages, a priest said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need-USA. Fr. Luka Joseph Jatau, director of the Justice and Peace Development Commission in the Diocese of Kontagora, Nigeria, spoke by phone with the pontifical foundation January 6, discussing details of the ...

The New Year has not begun peacefully in Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Kontagora. Just as the final days of 2025 were marked by violence and fear, early January 2026 has brought fresh bloodshed, including the massacre of 42 men in the village of Kasuwan Daji, not far from Papiri, where more than 200 schoolchildren were abducted in November. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) expresses its deep concern and strongly condemns the recent wave of violent attacks in the ...

There have been 212 clergy kidnappings since 2015. Between 2015 and 2025, at least 212 Catholic priests were kidnapped in Nigeria, in a wave of violence that affects the whole country. This is revealed by an ongoing study carried out by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria shared with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The research documents kidnappings in at least 41 of the country’s 59 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses. The data is consistent with ...

There are hopeful signs that the remaining students who were kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school last month will be home for Christmas. The Diocese of Kontagora, in the west-central State of Niger, confirmed the release of “the second batch” of those abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri November 21. “We are profoundly grateful to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Niger State Government, the security agencies, and all other partners whose efforts and interventions ...

The Church in northern Burkina Faso deplores the lack of media attention given to the terrorist crisis it is suffering, with displaced people facing enormous needs and Christian communities showing great resilience. During a visit to the international headquarters of Aid to the Church in Need in Königstein, Germany, Bishops Théophile Naré and Justin Kientega spoke about the situation in their Dioceses of Kaya, Dori, and Ouahigouya. For the tenth consecutive year, Christmas Masses in Burkina Faso will take place ...

Some parishes in northern Mozambique can encompass hundreds of communities, and priests and religious cannot reach them all. Catechists are often on the front lines of the Church in the most difficult regions and circumstances. Around 300 families live in difficult conditions in the Ressettlement Camp of Ntele, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. They have fled from the violence that plagues parts of the province, which has suffered from a Jihadist insurgency for over eight years, and are affected by the trauma ...