The Voice of the suffering in Africa

Tony Zender, who oversees projects in a number of English-speaking African countries for international papal charity Aid to the Church in Need, recently visited Zambia. It is a politically stable nation, though it has far to go in terms of development and lifting its people out of poverty.

The specter of Boko Haram may have fallen from the headlines, but a painful echo of its reign of terror in northeastern Nigeria endures. The group mainly killed men, leaving behind countless widows and orphans in dire straits.

Dust and mud brick houses everywhere—as far as the eye can see. The houses are indistinguishable in color from the ground on which they stand. Trees are few and far between.

In the wake of an attack on a Catholic seminary, the leader of the Church in the Democratic Republic has issued an appeal about “the alarming security situation” in his country.

Mother Marie-Catherine Kingbo is Superior General of the Fraternity of the Servants of Christ in Niger. She spoke late last month at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

A Roman Catholic bishop has accused authorities in Nigeria of clandestinely supplying weapons to an Islamist terrorist network, charging that the organization has infiltrated federal and state governments.