Barely, a few hours after Pope Francis’ Saturday tweets, urging prayers for northeast Nigeria, on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a sizeable number of Nigerian military personnel attended Sunday Mass at the Madagali community parish in the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri. This is according to information made available to Vatican News’ English Africa Service by Fr. Gideon Obasogie of the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri.
It was an emotional Eucharistic celebration as the Madagali community Mass turned into a celebration of thanksgiving. The Nigerian military personnel, in attendance, had literally come from the front line following a week spent repelling a series of Boko Haram attempted attacks on the Madagali community.
Pope Francis is praying with us, says Parish Priest
The Parish Priest, Fr. Innocent Sunu encouraged the Military personnel to remain steadfast in protecting the vulnerable community. He reminded parishioners that they were not alone, but that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and the Universal Church were praying and were united with them in their life of constant insecurity.
We are neglected by politicians
Fr. Sunu, however, said the state of insecurity in Nigeria and particularly in the northern regions was the result of neglect by politicians. With some bridges in the region recently washed away by heavy rains or destroyed by Boko Haram, the area could as well be considered “comfortably cut off from other towns,” said Fr. Sunu.
“The weak but faithful Christians here in the north (of Nigeria) have nothing much to say or do other than seek the intercession of our Mother of Hope -as prayed by the Holy Father. This is the only lifeline left for our people in a country where our political leaders seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel and have taken their eyes off the ball,” lamented the Madagali Parish Priest.
Madagali is near the Sambisa forest
Nigeria’s Madagali community has in the past been vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks because it is situated just a few kilometres from the infamous Sambisa forest that unfortunately has become synonymous with Boko Haram terrorists. Boko Haram has used the forest as its fortress and hiding place.
The insurgents have been waging deadly attacks against the Nigerian State in a bid to impose their brand of a religious government (Caliphate). In the process, Boko Haram has attacked civilians through killings, bombings, forced conscription and abductions of women and girls.
Abducted victims are often spirited away in the dense Sambisa forest. Over the last few years, the Nigerian military has, appeared to have gained a noticeable upper hand over the terrorists. Nonetheless, Boko Haram are relentless fighters who are still a significant menace to Nigerian society.
We thank God for sparing us from COVID-19
Turning to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Madagali Parish Priest, Fr. Sunu, thanked God that, so far, the community had been spared the worst.
“We give thanks to God for His care as we have been protected against the Coronavirus. The world is experiencing a global pandemic, but we have been saved in this our little village. If COVID-19 cases come here, the numbers would hit the roof, and we would all be history because the health care facilities here are as good as non-existent,” said the Parish Priest.
On Sunday 16 August, the largest rally in Belarusian modern history took place. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets all across Belarus to participate in the Freedom March. These peaceful demonstrations had clear demands: the release of all unlawfully detained people, the prosecution of those responsible for police brutality, and holding of new presidential elections.
The sheer numbers clearly show that the Belarusian population wants change, and wants it now. The EU stands by them.
With more and more shocking reports of inhumane conditions and treatment in places of detention, the European Union expects a thorough and transparent investigation into all alleged abuses, in order to hold those responsible to account. The European Union Delegation to Belarus has conveyed our expectations to the Belarusian authorities.
As announced by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, EU Heads of State or Government will discuss the situation in Belarus on Wednesday, where I will update them on progress on these EU initiatives.
Pope Francis is urging Brazil’s consecrated men and women to fight worldly tendencies is “to give priority to prayer” beccause the “person who keeps his or her eyes fixed on Jesus learns that to live to serve.”
He makes this exhortation in a message to them as they observe the first Week of Consecrated Religious Life, August 16 to 22. In the message addressed to Sister Maria Inês Vieira Ribeiro, the national president of the Conference of the Religious of Brazil (CRB), the Pope expresses his joy at the initiative which “aims to promote and renew the mission” of each consecrated religious in the Land of the Holy Cross, as the first explorers of the unknown territory called it.
The Holy Father, himself a Jesuit, reminds them that the vocation of a religious has its origin in the experience of knowing that one is loved by God. Life itself, he explains, is the fruit of the loving call of God, who accompanies us along our journey, and is aware of our anxious longing for love and happiness, He calls us to joy. This joy, the Pope stresses, is found only in the gift of self to others.
Prayer helps fix gaze on Jesus
In today’s society, which is undergoing epochal changes, the Pope urges the religious to “be vigilant in order to avoid the temptation to have a worldly outlook, which prevents us from seeing God’s grace as the protagonist of life and leads us to go out in search of a substitute”.
And the best antidote against such a temptation, the Pope says, is to give priority to prayer in the midst of all our activities. A person who keeps his gaze fixed on Jesus, learns to live and serve, recalling that he or she is loved.
Our first love
Pope Francis thus invites Brazil’s religious men and women to ask themselves: “Is Jesus truly the first and only love, as we proposed when we professed our vows?” Only this way, the Holy Father says, “will we be able to truly and mercifully love each person we meet on our journey”. By learning from Jesus what love is will we know how to love, the Pope says.
Ever onward
Consecrated religious present in Rome participated in the recitation of the Angelus with Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square on Sunday. He singled them out, saying:
“In particular, I greet the Brazilian men and women religious present here in Rome – with so many flags – these religious are following spiritually the First National Week of Consecrated Life being celebrated in Brazil. Happy week of consecrated life. Ever onward!”
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has conveyed Pope Francis’s warmest greetings to Bishop Francesco Lambasi of Rimini, on the occasion of the opening of the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples.
“The Holy Father wishes to convey through you his wish for the success of the 41st Meeting for Friendship amongst Peoples,” reads the letter dated 5 August. “To the organizers and all those who will participate, Pope Francis assures his closeness and his prayer.”
Every year since 1980, the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples takes place in August, in Rimini, Italy.
This year’s meeting is themed: “Devoid of wonder we remain deaf to the sublime” from A.J. Heschel’s book God in Search of Man. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the meeting is taking place online.
Echoing Pope Francis’s words during the Extraordinary Moment of Prayer on 27 March 2020, Cardinal Parolin said that we all are in the same boat tossed about in a storm that unmasks our vulnerabilities especially since we are all affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The theme of this year’s meeting, therefore, “offers a precious and original contribution at a dizzying moment in history” when we have lost our ability to look in amazement at reality like children.
Instead, said the Cardinal, “many have focused exclusively on their own strengths, on their ability to produce and earn,” in our search for goods rather than for good.
It is for this reason that Jesus’s invitation to become like children (Mt 18:3) comes to mind as amazement “sets life in motion, allowing it to start again in any circumstance,” said Cardinal Parolin.
The world in the face of Covid
Cardinal Parolin pointed out that in recent months “we have experienced that dimension of amazement that takes the form of compassion in the presence of suffering, fragility and the precariousness of existence.”
This noble human feeling, he explains, has taken many forms including pushing doctors and nurses to face the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic; encouraging teachers to adapt to the difficulties of distance learning to finish the school year, and “allowing many to find in the faces and presence of their families, the strength to face discomfort and difficulties.”
In this sense, the theme of the meeting is a call to “descend into the depths of the human heart by means of amazement.” “Amazement”, he added “is the way to grasp the signs of the sublime, that is, of that mystery that constitutes the root and foundation of all things.”
If this type of vision is not cultivated, the Cardinal warned, “one becomes blind to existence, closed within oneself, attracted by what is fleeting, and stops questioning reality.”
Beauty in art
Cardinal Parolin recalled that Pope Francis recently received a letter from several artists who thanked him for praying for them during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on 7 May. On that occasion, the Pope said: “Artists make us understand what beauty is, and without beauty the Gospel cannot be understood.”
In that regard, Cardinal Parolin said the Meeting launches a challenge to Christians to witness the profound attraction that faith exercises by virtue of its beauty. This, according to the Servant of God Luigi Giussani is the “attraction of Jesus.” And, as Pope Francis stresses in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (167), “every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus…so a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith.”
Pope Francis, therefore, invites the Meeting’s participants to collaborate with him in witnessing to the experience of “the beauty of God who became flesh so that our eyes may marvel at his face and our eyes may find in him, the wonder of living.” This, “is a task from which we cannot refrain,” said the Cardinal, especially in this critical time in history.
Concluding, Cardinal Parolin said the Pope imparts his Apostolic Blessing on the participants of the Meeting, asking them to remember him in their prayers.
Protesters want change in Thailand. They are callingfor the government’s resignation, a new constitution and fresh elections.
Over the past few weeks there have been daily demonstrations in Bangkok led by student groups. However, Sunday’s protest was the biggest since a 2014 coup.
The message from the street is clear. Demonstrators are demanding that the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha – who won disputed elections in 2019 – step down.
They want constitutional reform and for an end to the harassment of opposition activists.
But students are also turning their attention to the monarchy there. They are calling for its reform, including a curb on the current King’s constitutional powers, and an end to the monarchy’s role in politics, although there is no appetite for abolishing it.
Protest Roots
Anti-government protests first began late last year after courts banned the opposition Future Forward party, which opposed the current government.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the protests were mainly online based, but by July student groups were back on the streets.
The disappearance of a Thai anti-government activist in Cambodia, the latest of nine to go missing in recent years, has also fueled tensions.
Government action
Three student protest leaders have already been arrested and released on bail on charges over earlier protests. Police have also issued arrest warrants for a further 12 activists.
The government has said people have the right to protest, and the Prime Minister said he is seeking dialogue with demonstrators.
He also said the king has requested him not to use what are known as the “lese majeste laws” that can result in up to 15 years in prison for anyone criticizing the monarchy.
“Racism is a sin and should be eliminated in all its forms… individual, institutional, direct, and indirect”. Thus states the Archdiocese of the Port of Spain’s Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ).
The CCSJ issued the appeal in a statement last Thursday. They classify racism as a “vile worm that eats at the very soul of our beings and nation.”
This statement comes on the heels of the General Elections in Trinidad and Tobago on 10 August. The campaign preceding the election was characterized by racist sentiment. The CCSJ states it “abhors all the recent racist statements made on social media before and after” the General Election. They also say they are in agreement with an assessment made by UK journalist Kehinde Andrews that “focusing on individual prejudice” avoids “tackling endemic, systematic racism, leaving significant inequalities”.
Heart of the matter
In view of Trinidad and Tobago’s upcoming Independence Day celebrations, the CCSJ invites its citizens to “reflect NOW on ways in which each of us may have, wittingly or unwittingly, through thought, word, or action, fed this socially constructed, hydra-headed monster”, racism. “Let us commit to root out this evil from our hearts and minds. Indeed, the heart of the matter is in the human heart.”
The CCSJ says the vision of a country without racism is found in the laws, Constitution, Equal Opportunity Act and policies of the island nation, and in the values professed by faith communities. That vision can only become transformational when “we move from paper to action”, the CCSJ notes.
From racism to unity in diversity
“Justice and peace will never become a reality,” the CCSJ continued, “as long as racism exists”. They said the “rejection of racism in order to “embrace and promote unity in diversity” is “long overdue”.
The CCSJ say they pray for conversion of heart, citing the United States Bishops: “True justice and peace can be a matter of policy only if it is first a matter of the heart.”
“Let us pray for God’s grace”, they conclude the statement, “to open our eyes and those of our leaders, so that we will choose values and virtues that will help us to flourish/progress as a people.”
Trinidad and Tobago is home to people of Indian, African, European, and Middle Eastern descent. The islands obtained independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962 and became a republic in 1976.
Zimbabwe’s Catholic bishops drew a sharp government response after issuing a recent Pastoral Letter, titled ‘The March Is Not Ended’ on the current crisis in the southern African nation.
Then in a vitriolic attack on the bishops, a government minister played on delicate tribal divisions and was herself accused of stirring genocidal ethnic massacres.
The Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the World Methodist Council sent a message of solidarity of their “yearning for the realization of their human rights, for justice and for physical and economic security” in an open pastoral letter to the churches and people of Zimbabwe on Aug. 17.
They condemned the use of violence against those protesting the “failure of governance structures” to protect the Zimbabwe people from “deteriorating” conditions.
The four church organizations also strongly condemned “sexual abuse and violence against women activists.”
The letter specifies particular concern about “the mistreatment of political activists and other advocates for human rights,” economic and health care challenges exacerbated by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, among other failures as the country cries out for “effective accompaniment.
The Holy See’s representative in Zimbabwe, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, paid a solidarity visit on Sunday Aug. 16 to the Archbishop of Harare, Robert Christopher Ndlovu who had been singled out for a scorching personal attack by the Zimbabwe Government, Vatican News reported.
In their Pastoral Letter on Aug. 14, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference condemned the government’s current crackdown on any dissent, citing actions such as against journalists and political opposition leaders arrested and charged and left in jail.
“Fear runs down the spine of many of our people today. The crackdown on dissent is unprecedented” said the Pastoral Letter titled The March Is Not Ended, and that was signed by the seven Catholic bishops.
They had in the past voiced criticism when they deemed it warranted, from the era of white minority rule that ended in 1980 and then during the 30-year rule of President Robert Mugabe until 2017, which in his later years was criticized as particularly harsh.
Zimbabweans hoped life would improve when Mugabe’s former right hand man Emmerson Mnangagwa took over, but many of them say nothing has improved.
The bishops condemned a “government crackdown on dissent” in Zimbabwe, saying the government “automatically labels anyone thinking differently as an enemy.”
They said that constitutional bodies like the judiciary and the National Prosecuting Authority “seem to be losing their independence and effectiveness.”
The ink had barely dried on the Pastoral Letter before Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa on August 15, launched an unprecedented attack through issuing a long statement and taking to State-controlled television
She called the Catholic leaders an “evil-minded flock of misled narrow-minded bishops.”
Her harshest words were for bishops’ conference president, Robert Ndlovu, the Archbishop of Harare, accusing him of tribalism.
“With nefarious cynicism to history, Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu is inching to lead the Zimbabwe Catholic congregation into the darkest dungeons of Rwanda-type genocide,” she said.
‘EVIL MESSAGE’
Mutsvangwa, in her attack, said, “Its (letter) evil message reeks with all the vices that have perennially hobbled the progress of Africa. It trumpets petty tribal feuds and narrow regionalist agendas. That he (Archbishop Ndlovu) hopes to sow seeds of internecine strife as a prelude to civil war and national disintegration.”
The letter from the bishops linked the current State-sponsored violence against Zimbabweans, that earlier this month gave rise to the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign on social media, to the Gukurahundi massacres in the mid-1980s.
That bloody interlude in Zimbabwe erupted shortly after its independence from white minority rule and British dominion. The infamous Zimbabwe Fifth Brigade said to have been trained in North Korea, killed between 20,000 and 80,000 people in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions.
The Catholic archbishop is an ethnic Ndebele, most of whom live in Matabeleland in southwestern Zimbabwe.
“Suppression of the people’s anger can only serve to deepen the crisis and take the nation into a deeper crisis. This comes on the backdrop of unresolved past hurts like Gukurahundi, which continues to spawn even more angry new generations,” the letter said.
Rev. Kenneth Mtata, the general secretary of the Christian umbrella body, the Zimbabwean Council of Churches (ZCC), which includes Protestant Christians, the Catholic bishops, Orthodox and Evangelicals as well as Pentecostals, responded quickly in a tweet.
“We knew the situation would escalate but not at this rate. The tone responding to the ZCBC letter is worrying. We hope president Ed Mnangagwa @edmnangagwa will tone things down. At this rate, we will be crushing sooner than later. @zccinzim ,” said Mtata, a Lutheran.
‘TRIBALISTIC HATE SPEECH’
The main official opposition MDC-Alliance tweeted “We strongly condemn the unwarranted attacks by Minister Monica Mutsvangwa on the Catholic Church, particularly the tribalist hate speech against Archbishop Ndlovu. These have no place in a constitutional democracy. #ZimbabweanLivesMatter”
While others took to social media. Chalton Hwende from the opposition MDC-T Party tweeted, “As a Catholic, I am shocked by the reaction of the government of @edmnangagwa represented by the tribalist Minister Monica Mutsvangwa. The way they have singled out the archbishop should be condemned unreservedly. Surely Zanu-PF is now heading to the political dustbins of history.”
Zanu-PF is a coalition party made up of two liberation moments that led the most robust challenge both militarily and politically against the white minority government of Ian Smith who led a government from 1966 to 1979 that declared independence illegally from Britain.
Kholwani Nyathi tweeted, “In her unrestrained attack against the Archbishop Ndlovu, what does Monica Mutsvangwa mean by ‘the righteous minority Ndebele?’ Is it a coincidence that Ndlovu, a Ndebele, is singled out for the most vicious attack over a pastoral letter signed by scores of Catholic bishops?”
SOUTH AFRICAN ENVOYS SEND TO DIFFUSE CRISIS
Various international bodies like the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union (AU) and governments have highlighted human rights abuses in Zimbabwe after the 31 July demonstrations.
On 10 August, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, the current president of the AU, sent special envoys seeking to solve the ongoing crisis, which South Africa has tried to deal with several times unsuccessfully in recent decades. The envoys were sent home without meeting with the opposition, the churches, or civic bodies.
NO BROAD CONSULTATIONS
The bishops wrote, “Their failure to make broad consultations with the Church and civic society at this most tempestuous time was most regrettable. Was this not an opportunity missed?”
They further pointed to wide-spread corruption in the country that has several times caused inflation to rise monumentally to some of the highest levels known historically in the world.
“The corruption in the country has reached alarming levels. Government and civic society are agreed that corruption is choking the economy and compromising our justice system.”
The bishops in their letter also offered their solutions to heal the country.
These include implementing outstanding reforms towards constitutionalism and the rule of law, adopting a new social contract with an inclusive national economic vision, mending global relations, and an inclusive national humanitarian and emergency response.
On Sunday, 16 August, the Law Society of Zimbabwe warned of a “deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe” and demands that the government acts to “eradicate these abuses as a tangible assurance to the nation that the state does not approve of this conduct.”
UNITED STATES SANCTIONS
The United States has sanctions against some of Zimbabwe’s leaders. According to the United States, these apply only to officials responsible for the repression and not to the Zimbabwean people. They target only “officials from the ZANU-PF ruling party, top military figures and some government-owned firms…not the entire country.”
Last year the U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian A. Nichols said the economic crisis in Zimbabwe is due to corruption, and not sanctions.
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Medium
On 14 August 2020, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report titled ‘Afghanistan: Key socio-economic indicators. Focus on Kabul City, Mazar-e Sharif and Herat City’.
During 2016, EASO initiated a pilot project to facilitate Member States’ cooperation on the development of country guidance notes on Afghanistan. In the context of this project, the need for updated information was identified on topics of relevance for the consideration of Internal Protection Alternative (IPA) in Afghanistan, with a focus on the cities of Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif. This choice of focus was also kept for the 2020 update of Country Guidance on Afghanistan.
After providing some background information on these three cities, the 2020 EASO COI report Afghanistan, Key socio-economic indicators looks into several socio-economic indicators, including poverty, food security, housing, access to employment, education and healthcare, freedom of movement. The information is provided for the country, and where available for the three cities separately. Additional attention is paid to specific vulnerable groups such as IDPs, returnees, women and children.
The report was drafted by EASO COI Sector in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. It was reviewed by experts from Denmark, Danish Immigration Service and by ACCORD, the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation.
At the end of 2019, with 2.7 million refugees, Afghanistan was the third largest country of origin of refugees in the world. Afghan continued to be the second most common citizenship of asylum applicants in the EU+ as of June 2020.
This report is part of a series of EASO COI reports on Afghanistan due to be published in 2020.
The Office hereby informs you that the information related to closing dates and submission requirements for plant material will, as from 15/10/2020, be updated daily on the CPVO website. Such data may be found under “Technical examinations/Submission of plant material-S2 gazette” and will be published annually (15/02) in a .pdf format
Originally from Haiti, Dr. Bélizaire has been working in the humanitarian field since graduating in medicine and, in 2015, began supporting the effort to slow the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This year, WHO sent her to CAR, to set up the Organization’s COVID-19 response in the country.
Dr. Bélizaire shares her story as part of the #RealLifeHeroes campaign, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of this year’s World Humanitarian Day.
World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiolgist Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire in Itipo, Democratic Republic of the Congo., by WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie
“I chose community medicine because I want to be with, and work with, the community. The best thing we can do for communities is to prevent them from having to be healed, by keeping them healthy. Everything can be prevented at the basic level.
I went to Cuba and saw how medicine is developed at the family and community level. Doctors live in their communities, and they know every single thing about their people’s health and illnesses. When you are with the community, you are sitting down, listening to them tell you how they feel. In DRC, during the Ebola response, I went to Mai-Mai (community-based militia) villages. I sat down and ate with them: if you eat with them, they will trust you.
It was very difficult to build that trust in the beginning. They don’t trust foreigners. They have bigger problems than Ebola. I asked colleagues to identify who has influence and which groups we should work with. We worked with motorcycle drivers, women’s , travel and patients’ associations, and sex workers. We left no one behind, because we wanted everyone involved. We showed them how to develop projects and be part of society and how they could work with, and not against, the government. We aimed for solidarity and unity.
Katwa, in Butembo City was one of the worst-affected by Ebola. The officials initially thought we were there just to earn money. But once they believed what in what we were doing, they decided to help us, and they convinced the community to listen.
Lessons learned
There are a number of lessons that you can apply from the Ebola response in DRC to the COVID response in CAR.
First, the community has to be at the centre of any response. You have to work with them at the very early stages, and at every stage thereafter. Second, you need to take a win-win strategy. That means that you’re not only trying to end the Ebola or COVID outbreak, you need to focus on what comes next. What will they have after the disease is over? We need to respond to their basic needs.
Third, contact tracing is crucial. It is complicated, because people can be exposed to COVID multiple times, so we’re not always sure who is the source. But we are following through and finding sources. It has been a learning curve for this community. We trained 16,000 people in the North Kivu region of DRC, and we now have a chance to build a system like that here.
WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie
WHO’s Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire on a road through the forest near Itipo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Building trust amidst insecurity
With Ebola, the difficulty was access to the community, because of insecurity or because groups would not let us in, and also because of terrible roads.
CAR is similar to DRC in terms of insecurity. Here we have a health crisis in the middle of a protracted humanitarian crisis.
So, the biggest challenge is coordinating our response and the lack of resources. This country is so vulnerable and the health system is so weak. We have to build a health system while dealing with an emergency. So, we’re both doing preparedness and response at the same time. It makes it very complicated.
One of the best things we’ve achieved in CAR is getting the Civil Protection Ministry involved in going door-to-door to detect people and spread awareness. That is a huge achievement as it’s really increased our capacity.
This is my mission
I love what I am doing. I always say I don’t feel like I’m working: this work is a passion for me. My passion is to work in the community. Every time I know someone is alive because of my intervention I feel fulfilled – this is what fulfils my life. This is my mission.
And it is also the mission of WHO. I work for a very wonderful institution and I embrace their mission – to save lives. I have to keep going as long as people are in need of my help. This makes me more than happy.”
