The Voice of the suffering in Africa

Villagers in Cabo Delgado used to be united despite their religious diversity, but lately, religion has become a dividing factor, reports Bishop António Juliasse. The jihadists who have been waging an insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, are trying to establish a caliphate in the image of the Islamic State, says Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba. In a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Juliasse said that “the signs are all there. ...

The residents of eastern Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), feel abandoned by the international community. But they know that if they flee, the M23, an armed rebel group backed by Rwanda, will take over their lands. “We don’t feel isolated, we feel abandoned,” says Fr. Floribert Bashimbe, the vicar-general of the Diocese of Bukavu, located in the east of the DRC, on the border with Rwanda. According to the priest, the conflict of interests over the extraction ...

A missionary warns that people have forgotten about Sudan, a country currently experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, due to a three-year-long civil war. As citizens of the world, all people share the responsibility for peacebuilding, including in places the world has forgotten, such as Sudan. That was the message a missionary priest in Sudan wanted to drive home in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “The Catholic Church teaches that we share a ...

The statement comes in the wake of a devastating attack against a landmark Catholic church and compound located in the region of Meza in Cabo Delgado. The Muslim community of Mozambique has issued a statement condemning the ongoing attacks by jihadists in the north, which have increasingly been targeting Christian people and sites. The jihadists who operate in Cabo Delgado and claim allegiance to the Islamic State recently attacked the Catholic parish of Saint Louis de Montfort in Meza, in ...

Attack on the parish of St. Louis de Montfort generated widespread panic among Christians. A historic church in Meza, in the region of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, was reduced to rubble during an attack by jihadist insurgents. According to information sent by sources on the ground to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the attack took place April 30 at around 4 in the afternoon, as armed militants entered the parish of St. Louis de Montfort and began to ...

When Bishop Stephen Nyodho was appointed to the Diocese of Malakal, everything had been destroyed. No buildings, no services, and no flock. With courage and leading by example, he began to rebuild: first trust, and then infrastructure. The city of Malakal, in South Sudan, used to be home to tens of thousands of people before the civil war began in 2013, shortly after the priest Stephen Nyodho moved to Rome for his doctorate. When Pope Francis named Nyodho Bishop of ...