Fredrick Nzwili

Rains triggered flooding and landslides in Rubavu, Rwanda, May 3, swamping residents homes. As the death toll from the flooding and landslides in neighboring Congo surpassed 400, Catholic bishops in the country expressed their deep sorrow and called for support.

Catholic church leaders in Ethiopia are welcoming a U.S.-funded food security program that will benefit millions of people suffering from the drought in the Horn of Africa country.

Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel has welcomed a peace agreement that the government and Tigray forces signed to end the war in the country's northern region.

Catholic leaders, experts and members of civil society spoke during a dialogue session ahead of COP27, the next United Nations climate change conference.

Amid a U.N. warning that a famine is looming in Somalia, U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services is calling for increased humanitarian support in the Horn of Africa country.

An agricultural technical school in Eritrea is the latest to fall under government control, in a string of forced seizures of Catholic schools and hospitals.

Catholic environmental activists participating in the Laudato Si' Movement in Africa matched their words with actions, mounting cleanup efforts and educational programs as part of the observance of World Environment Day.

The drought in Kenya — which the United Nations described as the worst in 40 years — is believed to be a consequence of climate change. The lack of rain in the fourth consecutive season has snuffed out livelihoods, leaving millions of people on the verge of starvation.

Representatives of 175 nations at the U.N. Environment Assembly endorsed an agreement to end plastic pollution and forge a legally binding agreement by 2024.

As Catholic officials in Tigray continue to call for meaningful peace talks, an international refugees organization is warning that Eritrean refugees in the northern region have nowhere to run.

The Faith for Earth Dialogue seeks to demonstrate the power and potential of faith-based organizations and faith leaders in shaping discussions at the UNEA as well as engaging in dialogue with other stakeholders.

The project involves building more than 800 miles of pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania, which the Laudato Si' Movement says poses a severe threat to environmental conservation, biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation.

The Catholic church in Ethiopia says its operations in the northern state of Tigray have been severely affected, as the war between regional and federal forces disrupts money flow, banking services, fuel and telecommunication. An official at the bishops' social communication department clarified that an earlier statement suggesting the suspension of emergency interventions in the region was misleading. "The earlier statement was wrongly prepared," Habtamu Abrdew, social communications and public relations adviser at the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, told Catholic News Service.

Bishops seek to encourage local churches to commit to protecting world's second-largest tropical forest from destruction while 'taking into account the dignity of the people' who live there.

A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring in the region where a military offensive launched in November.

Catholic bishops in Uganda are mourning Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga of Kampala, who was found dead in his room April 3. His death shocked the East African nation, where the archbishop had come to be known as a defender of the rights of the poor and the downtrodden. The cause of death was not released immediately.

An African faiths environmental institute is urging the Gates Foundation to support natural methods to help Africa achieve food sufficiency and protect its environments instead of funding green revolution technologies and genetically modified seeds.

A senior official of Jesuit Refugee Service called for a humanitarian corridor in Ethiopia's semi-autonomous region of Tigray as the armed conflict between the Ethiopian army and the region's forces continued to escalate, killing hundreds and forcing thousands out of their homes.

A predicted return of desert locusts in East Africa is triggering concerns among Catholic leaders and experts in the region, where communities are still recovering from the destruction by the first wave early this year.

As Catholic groups worldwide divest from fossil fuels, some priests, environmental conservationists and activists in East Africa are resisting an oil pipeline taking shape in their region.