Latest News
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The New Scramble for Africa’s Wealth
Africa is a vast continent with many valuable resources, particularly arable land. Unfortunately, this fact is not a secret. Many nations outside of Africa recognize the potential that currently underutilized (or perceived as underutilized) land holds, and several have recently made moves to capitalize on these opportunities. This pursuit of land has led to a…
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New Food Aid Bill Raises Concerns
Although a complete overhaul of U.S. foreign assistance seems to have stalled, legislators wasted no time in addressing international food aid reform. On February 5, the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act (S. 384) was introduced on the Senate floor. The bill takes a longer-term view of agricultural production in the developing world and will improve U.S. capability to respond to emergency food crises. But the Lugar-Casey bill is not quite as sweet as it sounds. Though there are many elements of the legislation that should be celebrated (particularly buying food aid locally), it also expands the private-public partnership with the genetically modified crop research industry.
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“International Firms Stand Accused of Fish Piracy”
“International Firms Stand Accused of Fish Piracy”The East African quotes AFJN’s Beth Tuckey on Somali piracy
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AFRICOM’s Ugandan Blunder
This article was originally published in Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) on April 20th, 2009. In early February, The New York Times released information detailing the involvement of the U.S. military in the bungled Ugandan mission to oust the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from northeastern DR Congo. Seventeen military advisors from AFRICOM worked closely with the Ugandan People’s…
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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…
