Africa

Photo: The church of St. Mary’s in Nchang burned on 16.09.2022. Source: YouTube

Pope Appeals for Release of Catholics Kidnapped in Cameroon

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Pope Francis has added his voice to calls by the bishops of Cameroon for the release of five priests, a religious sister, a cook, a catechist and a 15-year-old girl kidnapped in southwest Cameroon, where a civil war has been raging between the French and English-speaking communities for years.

on September 25, the pope said he was praying for peace in Cameroon. “I join in the appeal of the bishops of Cameroon for the liberation of people kidnapped in the diocese of Mamfe,” reported the Catholic News Agency.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 September 2022

Photo: Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Washington, DC, married with the Dutch academic Marceline.

Late Archbishop Tutu's Daughter Barred from Godfather's Funeral

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu said she was “stunned” by the Church of England when they denied her the right to officiate at her godfather’s funeral because she is married to a woman.

According to the Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Washington, DC, the Church barred her from officiating despite her late godfather’s personal wish that she lead the ceremony at his funeral.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 26 September 2022

Photo: Since dumpsites are already overflowing with waste in Kenya, textiles are often dumped directly into rivers, as in the Nairobi river. © Kevin McElvaney / Greenpeace

African Ministers Commit to Fighting Pollution, Climate Change, Loss of Nature

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The 18th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) closed with environment ministers from 54 African countries adopting a series of decisions and key messages to tackle climate change, the loss of nature, pollution and waste, including the elimination of open dumping and burning of waste.

The conference took place from September 12-16 in Dakar, Senegal.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 September 2022

Photo: Namibian President Hage Geingo. Source: taarifa.rw

Namibian Leader in Bitter Feud Over Colonialism with SWAPO Critics

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — At a recent meeting of the SWAPO Party Youth League in Ongwediva, Namibian President Hage Geingob took the offensive, attacking his critics for dismissing the successes of the SWAPO party.

“SWAPO is not dying, and party members should tell those who think so to go to hell,” he said forcefully. Those leaving its ranks because they think it is dead would not be missed, he added.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 September 2022

Photo: Collapsed wall of the former De Beers diamond mine. Source: Mail&Guardian

South African Diamond Mine Dam Collapses, Killing Three and Injuring 40

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A mine wall at the former De Beers diamond mine in South Africa’s Free State Province collapsed on September 10-11, killing at least three people and injuring another 40. Nine houses were swept away in a flash flood, according to the Bloomberg news service.

The government said in a statement that search and rescue efforts are continuing at the abandoned mine—a unit of Anglo American (AAL.L).

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 September 2022

Queen Elizabeth's Death Stirs Mixed Emotions in Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The passing of Queen Elizabeth II has not gone unremarked in Africa, where local television and radio stations interrupted normal broadcasting in order to relay events happening in the United Kingdom.

Across the world, nations are paying tribute to the 96-year-old monarch. US President Joe Biden described her as “a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States”.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 September 2022

Photo: A project funded by UNDEF in The Gambia works to enhance Media-Government Relations to Improve Legal Environment for Freedom of Expression. Credit: Gambia Press Union

Is Corruption Among the Leading Force of Governance in Africa?

Viewpoint by Rev. Gabriel Odima*

MINNESOTA USA (IDN) — When electoral fraud began to replace the ballot as means to install rulers like the case of Kenya today, corruption, suppression of human rights and freedoms became the leading force of governance in Africa.

In every country where rulers were installed after fraudulent election, the first casualty became the constitution, political parties including its elected parliament. The United Nations Security Council, the international media, human rights organizations and Washington mounted no serious campaign to forestall what has now befallen the people of Kenya.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 September 2022

Photo: Kenya's new president William Ruto. Wikimedia Commons

Lessons Africa Might Learn from the Election of Ruto as Kenya's President

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — In six African countries, the heads of government have been in power for 20 years or more. Attempts to replace them by ballot have either been stalled, frustrated or crushed.

In a few, like South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been in power for 28 years, new heads of government have been produced more by incest than by the ballot.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 08 September 2022

Photo: Wooden fishing boats sinking into the oily mud in the Bodo City of Ogoniland in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, the third largest mangrove ecosystem in the world. Credit: Friends of the Earth International

UN Agency Slates Clean-up of Nigeria's Most Polluted Region

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — There were high hopes for a one-billion-dollar clean-up of Nigeria’s most polluted region of Ogoniland in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, the third largest mangrove ecosystem in the world when it got off the ground in 2019. It would address the greasy rainbow sheen over the 386-mile wetlands, the continual ooze from dormant wellheads and active pipelines, the once-lush mangroves coated in crude, and the smells of benzene while farmlands stood charred and barren.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 September 2022

Photo: The Rolling Hills of the Wild Coast at dusk in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. CC BY-SA 4.0

South Africa's Nature Preserve Saved from Risky Oil Drilling

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) — Energy giant Shell Global suffered a major setback in its fight for prospecting rights, overstepping the needs of rural communities seeking to protect whales and other marine life and keeping their coastline safe from oil spills and other dangers.

A panel of South African judges sided with the rural communities, fishermen, traditional healers and environmental activists against the oil giant and the South African government, which granted exploration rights to Shell and a local partner over the objections of people living on the coastline.