Ngala Killian Chimtom

After the M23 Rwanda-backed rebels Feb. 16 occupied Bukavu, a second major city in mineral-rich eastern Congo, Catholic bishops and experts are warning this offensive in the provinces of North and South Kivu signals a clear intent to establish a permanent foreign country presence in the region.
 

His efforts resulted in a retreat that ended with Pope Francis kissing the feet of warring South Sudan leaders — a gesture that shocked the world in 2019. Now the Jesuit priest has received a prestigious peace award for his groundbreaking work.
 

As nations meet in Colombia for the COP16 summit under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, African bishops and other religious leaders are joining calls to protect Indigenous rights in conservation efforts

Cardinal Michael Czerny has warned that humanity is in danger of "losing its home" as the world continues to reel from the effects of climate change. The prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development made the comments Jan. 20 in Cotonou, Benin, during a roundtable on the Green Church Program, an initiative of the Archdioceses of Cotonou that was launched in March 2023.

Gov. Caleb Mutfwang of Nigeria's Plateau state declared a week of mourning Jan. 1-8 to honor the deaths of at least 200 Christians killed over Christmas by Fulani Muslim herders, targeting Christians in the country. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, said the attackers are "children of darkness" and come "from the deepest pit of hell."

A Catholic priest and three Catholic teachers in Cameroon's troubled southwest region are recovering from bullet wounds after they were shot in what church authorities say was a targeted attack on a Catholic primary school Sept. 26.

Ugandans woke up June 17 to the shock of a school massacre in which at least 39 students and two community members were killed.

At least 52,250 people have been killed over the last 14 years in Nigeria just for being Christian, a new report published April 10 revealed.

Malawi is reeling from the consequences of Cyclone Freddy that hit the southeastern African country March 12. The storm system caused flooding and mudslides that have resulted in the deaths of at least 476 people as of March 19.

While Pope Francis has returned to Rome after his six-day apostolic trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, the words he left there will resonate across the continent for a long time, church leaders and experts say.

Religious leaders in Cameroon have welcomed the announcement of a planned dialogue between the government and separatists, aimed at resolving a protracted conflict. But a later statement has also dampened expectations.

Pope Francis will be visiting a country in turmoil and blighted by the "demons of tribalism, nepotism, regionalism and clientelism," the deputy secretary-general of the Congolese bishops' conference.

As world leaders gathered at COP27, the U.N. climate conference, to figure out how to deal with climate change, faith organizations found their voices through protests.

Many Africans, including bishops, mourned the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, but for some, that feeling of grief was dwarfed by memories of Britain's colonial exploitation of the continent.

In NCR interviews, three Catholic bishops in Cameroon's English-speaking regions sharply criticized President Paul Biya's violent, yearslong campaign to quell an Anglophone independence movement.