Latest News
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TAKE ACTION: Pirates or Disempowered Somalis?
ACTION ALERT! If you’ve been following the news recently, you’ve probably heard a lot about pirates. Not the swashbuckling, patch-over-the-eye, ruthless robber kind, but the disempowered, poverty-stricken, Somali kind. Although the piracy situation off the coast of Somalia has been going on for years, the capture of U.S. captain Richard Phillips in early April raised…
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Negligence Within the Congolese Military
Now that Laurent Nkunda is out of the picture and some other rebel groups have been integrated into the Congolese national army, what is the Congolese government’s excuse for neglecting to take care of the state’s men in uniform (FARDC in French acronym)? Consider the case of the Congolese soldiers deployed in the North Kivu…
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Peace and Progress in North Kivu Eastern D.R. Congo
In Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province and surrounding towns, there are many signs of hope. Since the announcement of the capture of the National Congress for People’s Defense (CNDP) rebel leader Laurent Nkunda on January 23, and the slow integration of CNDP and other rebel groups into the Congolese national army, people…
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Evaluating the Somali “Pirate” Situation
by Beth Tuckey For many of us, the word “pirate” conjures up a whole host of images, most notably that of a swashbuckling, patch-over-the-eye, ruthless robber. In our history texts, pirates sailed the high seas in search of treasure chests of gold, often in retaliation for maltreatment by great European empires. There is little doubt…
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The Church in Africa, at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice, and Peace
Posted April 8th, 2009. Adapted from an article originally written for the US Catholic Missions Association. On March 19th, at the end of the Mass celebrated in the National Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon on the feast of St. Joseph, Pope Benedict XVI presented the instrumentum laboris (working document) for the upcoming Second Special Assembly for Africa…
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AFJN Invites You to Join the Climate Change Covenant!
This month, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change is launching a unique and unprecedented initiative, A Catholic Climate Covenant and the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor. This ambitious project is in response to a growing desire by the Catholic community to respond, in faith, to climate change. It will also…
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Never Again: Honoring Jennifer Davis with the 2009 Faith & Justice Award
“Never again”… words we often hear in the face of tragedy and horror, holocaust, and genocide. Words Ms. Jennifer Davis heard from her German grandmother and parents as they recalled the horror of the Nazi Holocaust. This young Jewish girl, born in South Africa from a German mother and a South African father, was…
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Climate Change Talking Points – 2009 EAD Lobby Day
2009 ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY DAYS – ENOUGH FOR ALL CREATIONTalking Points for Participants on Our Message for Congress God created the earth and declared it “good.” As people of faith— called to protect the vulnerable and to the care and keeping of God’s earth—we are gravely concerned that the impacts of climate change have and will…
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AFRICOM Fails Its First Test
As one of its principal missions, AFRICOM states (africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp) that it will offer “the kind of support that will enable African governments and existing regional organizations… to have greater capacity to provide security and respond in times of need.” To that end, AFRICOM provides training and equipping of African militaries – something AFJN strongly opposes –…
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2009 Staff Report
Staff: We have a three person full time staff at AFJN. Beth Tuckey who has been with us since June 2007 is the associate director for program development and policy. She also assists with outreach. Bahati Ntama Jacques began in September of 07. He is the policy analyst. He is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. …
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AFJN Signs Thank You to Leahy on Climate Change, Pushes for More
Last week, AFJN joined dozens of organizations in thanking Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for his work in appropriating more money to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Senator Leahy pushed for $10 million in the 2009 Omnibus bill, an important step forward in helping poorer…
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Letter to President Obama from Ecumenical Advocacy Days
Nearly 700 participants will come together at Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) this weekend in Alexandria, VA to discuss the relationship between climate change, migration, and poverty. AFJN has helped formulate the Africa Program at EAD for many years, and we are excited about this year’s events. On Monday, all of the organizations who take part…
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IMF Reform?
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become somewhat infamous as one of the most well-funded failures of Western attempts at development. On the continent of Africa, the rather unsuccessful IMF policies of the past have included damaging structural adjustment policies and large loans to undemocratic and irresponsible regimes – with the only result being large…
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Rwanda Begins Troop Withdrawl in Eastern DR Congo
Despite anxieties around Rwanda’s military presence in Congo, troops have now begun to leave eastern DRC, five weeks after they crossed the border to attack FDLR Hutu rebels. A ceremony bidding farewell to the Rwandan military took place in Goma today, and news reports say approximately 1,500 troops have already left. Though this is a positive advancement,…
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AFRICOM Fails Its First Test
As one of its principal missions, AFRICOM states that it will offer “the kind of support that will enable African governments and existing regional organizations… to have greater capacity to provide security and respond in times of need.” To that end, AFRICOM provides training and equipping of African militaries – something AFJN strongly opposes – as well…
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Declaration of Religous Summit on LRA Issue
Last week, Caritas reported on the first-ever gathering of religious leaders from the numerous communities affected by the continued aggression of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a gathering focused on finding a regional solution to the violence. This three-day meeting, hosted by Catholic Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, brought together for the first time Catholic bishops…
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Vulture Funds: Ugly Name for an Ugly Reality
Vulture funds, often called “Distressed Debt Funds” are predatory hedge funds that siphon off newly freed resources from poor-country debt cancellation efforts. They do this by buying up a poor country’s debt in default for pennies on the dollar and then engaging courts in U.S., Britain and beyond to sue for the full amount of…
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‘Greetings’ in Burundian Culture
Hearing Burundians greet each other and greet us in Kirundi got me curious about finding out the meaning of these daily greeting rituals. The finding is, astonishingly, a good ground on which Burundians can build bridges of reconciliation and recovery from the hurt caused by years of war.
In fact, greetings in Burundi are full of expressions of wishes for peace for individuals and for the whole community. In the morning, you say mwaramutse. It literally means ‘did you wake up?’ It can also mean ‘did you survive?’ This question is about surviving the unexpected challenges that can happen in the dark of the night.
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Evolving Political Situation in Burundi
This article was originally posted on January 29th, 2009 during AFJN’s trip to Burundi and Uganda. It appeared as a blog post on justicegreatlakes.blogspot.com. Reposted here April 14th, 2009. Although many Burundians feel positive about the political shift in their country, some still hold skepticism about the sustainability of the current peace. The sound of…
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Climate Change and the Poor: A Plea to the Relief and Development Community
Through an accident of birth, most of us enjoy an extravagant lifestyle. We have the basics—food, clothing, housing, and health care—and then some—education, stable communities, good jobs, freedom to travel and to speak without fear of reprisal. Africa Faith and Justice Network members know that too many don’t even have the basics. As people of faith,…
