Latest News
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EU-Africa Summit: Where Are Human Rights?
Prime minister Gordon Brown of England refused to attend the Euro-African summit in Lisbon last weekend because President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe would be in attendance. Recognizing the grave human rights abuses committed by Mugabe’s regime, Mr. Brown wanted nothing to do with a summit that invited such leaders to the party. Omar al-Bashir, President…
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Driven by Faith: Jacques Bahati and His Mission for Africa
“Driven by Faith: Jacques Bahati and His Mission for Africa”Africana Connect Online Magazine, NonProfit Spotlight on AFJN Policy Analyst Jacques Bahati
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Hostilities Costing Africa’s Sustainable Survival
Debt, diseases and war are three major issues affecting the continent of Africa. Development is what is needed and yet hostilities across the continent between 1990 and 2005 have cost Africa’s economies approximately $284 billion, roughly equivalent to the amount of foreign aid given to the continent. This is all according to a report released…
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AFRICOM Gains National Attention and Skepticism; AFJN Takes a Firm Stance
Over the last few weeks, AFRICOM has appeared in several major media outlets. Until now, there has been very little national-level presscoverage of the command, reflecting a lack of knowledge about AFRICOM among the general public. As such, we are delighted to see media exposure that highlights not only the basic facts but also the…
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Floods Create Havoc in Africa
In the past three months, floods have ravaged many African nations including Ghana and Togo in the west, as well as Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, and Kenya in the central and eastern regions. At least 200 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in these countries. Half a million people across the…
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First HIV/AIDS drug plant to open in Uganda
A factory that will produce treatments for HIV/AIDS is set to open in Kampala, Uganda, the first of its kind in the country. It aims to reduce the cost of the vital medication by cutting import costs. According to Uganda’s Health Minister, Dr. Stephen Malinga, locally produced anti-retroviral HIV drugs and anti-malaria drugs should be…
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AFJN Discusses Restorative Justice with Bigombe
On October 4th, AFJN Staff and Interns met with Betty Bigombe to discuss restorative justice. Bigombe, currently a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute for Peace, is renowned for her mediation efforts in northern Uganda. Since the early 1990’s, Bigombe has sought to end the insurgency in the north by engaging in dialogue with…
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Ugandan President Museveni Labels Contracting HIV Treason
On September 24, President Museveni of Uganda was addressing officials from 12 Ugandan universities in Kampala when he compared contracting HIV/AIDS to treason. According to the Monitor, he said to those who contract HIV/AIDS, “Instead of being an asset, you become a burden. … And afterwards, they announce that [the person] has died after a very…
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Trading for Peace: Latest Research by DFID and USAID
For the past several years, AFJN has been working on issues relating to the African Great Lakes Region, particularly the efforts to restore peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Northern Uganda. It was in consideration of the importance of peace as a tool for the development of the African Great Lakes Region…
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AFJN Adopts Three New Focus Issues
Each year, the AFJN Staff and Board take some time to consider the major issues arising in the continent of Africa and subsequently choose new focus campaigns. For the past couple of years, AFJN has been devoted almost entirely to raising awareness of the war in northern Uganda. The organization has also tracked the havoc…
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Global Gag Rule debate continues in HIV/AIDS funding talks
The debate over whether US relief money should go to programs that teach abstinence versus family planning and birth control continues. Since 1984, there has been a restriction called the Mexico City Policy, better known as the ‘global gag rule.’ The global gag rule prohibits U.S. family planning assistance to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that…
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Global Climate Change, Global Effort
From September 5-7, 2007, the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) held its annual conference for Non Government Organizations on the theme, “Global climate change, how it impacts us all?” Utilizing AFJN’s UN-DPI status, Executive Director Rocco Puopolo and Staff Member Bahati Jacques and members Sr. Maura Browne and Fr. Luigi Zanotto attended the…
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AFJN and Congo Global Action Coalition
Since the end of 2006, AFJN has been actively involved in CGA. Our Executive Director, Rocco Puopolo, s.x., sits on the Coalition’s Executive Committee and AFJN acts as CGA’s fiscal sponsor. Together with over thirty international organizations, we have built a coalition to stop the violence in DR Congo. As we watched the crises in Darfur…
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Peace Continues to Elude DR Congo
The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been waiting for peace for the past eleven years, but the reality on the ground shows that peace is not in their near future. The Congo has been at war since its invasion in 1996 by the Tutsi and a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan and…
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Child Abuse: UN Report Expresses Concern Over Sexual Crimes Against Children in Cote d’Ivoire
Five years after the civil war in Cote d‘Ivoire, the UN is urging political actors to give due attention to the needs of children. The continued sustenance of the culture of impunity for those who commit crimes against children that gained prominence during the rebellion is harmful to the growth and peace of the nation. …
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The Forgotten Victims: Children infected with HIV/AIDS
Every minute of every day a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. 1,400 children die of AIDS each day and more than a half million young lives are claimed by this disease each year. We often hear of treatment for HIV/AIDS and the action taken to help fight this deadly disease,…
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Catholic Church of Zimbabwe Declares Support for Archbishop
As Zimbabweans continue to suffer from severe food shortages and an inflation rate of over 7,500%, one man has openly denounced the government for inflicting such a crisis upon its civilians. Archbishop Pius Ncube is one of very few who have taken a stand against President Robert Mugabe, calling for street protests and political intervention…
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Senate Passes Bill to Increase Funds To Fight HIV/AIDS Worldwide
On Thursday, September 7, 2007, the Senate voted 81-12 to approve the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Aid Spending Bill (HR 2764 ) that would increase funds to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide. The $34 billion measure would increase President Bush’s $4.2 billion request for funds to fight HIV/AIDS globally by $940 million (Taylor, AP/International Herald…
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Nigeria Adds Its Voice to AFRICOM Opposition
Several weeks ago, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) released a public objection to the presence of American soldiers in all Southern African countries under the jurisdiction of SADC. Similarly, over the past week, Nigeria has begun efforts to freeze the progress of the US military in erecting a military base in West Africa. The…
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Again, D.R.Congo Under Fire. Who Has the Solution to this Conflict?
For several weeks now, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (namely in the North Kivu province), hundreds of people have been displaced due to heavy fighting between the Tutsi pro-Rwanda rebel group lead by Laurent Nkundabatware. Many have also been left dead, among them women and children. Reports from the ground state that…
