Africa

Sudan faces food shortage
CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency, is calling on the international community to deliver more aid to Sudan now to avert a major humanitarian crisis.
Rob Rees, the charity's programme officer for Sudan has just returned from Nairobi where he met Cafod partners who have completed a nutritional survey of the northern Bahr El Ghazal region.
He said: "While there are clear signs of an alarming rise in the cases of childhood malnutrition, our partners insist there is still time to prevent a humanitarian calamity on the scale of the 1998 famine, but only if the international community acts now to deliver aid to those in need."
The survey carried out by Cafod partners in May this year reveals that one in five children in Northern Bahr El Ghazal are malnourished and almost three per cent are showing signs of malnutrition.
In response to this latest crisis, Cafod's partners are setting up feeding centres to provide life-saving treatment for up to 20,000 displaced children.
State drops bomb on child
THREE PEOPLE were killed, including a child of six, in an air attack on the town of Narus, in the south of Sudan.
The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) recently learned of this from Bishop Paride Taban, in whose Diocese of Torit the attack occurred — apparently at the end of April.
The three civilians had been in the market square of the town when they were severely injured by the bombs. They were rushed to a hospital across the border in the Kenyan town of Lokichokio, where they died a few hours later from their injuries.
Bishop Taban himself escaped only by a hair's breadth from the attack, which destroyed his own house and the St Bakhita girls' boarding school.
For 18 years the radical Islamic government of Arab
dominated North Sudan has been waging a merciless war of annihilation against the predominantly Christian black African tribes, the Dinka and the Nuer, in the south of the country. During this time the war has cost two million lives and uprooted 4.5 million people from their homelands.
Zambian bishops deplore Milingo
THE CATHOLIC bishops of Zambia have stated their sadness at the marriage of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo to a Korean Moonie.
Archbishop Milingo, the Rome-based emeritus Archbishop of Lusaka, was married by the Rev Moon, the Unification Church founder, to Maria Sung, a 43 year old acupuncture doctor, in a group ceremony in a New York hotel.
After the wedding Archbishop Milingo pledged to return to Africa to adminster to the poor and those suffering from AIDS.
In a statement the bishops said: "We are pained by the defection of Archbishop Milingo in his attempt to marry in the Moon Sect. For a long time we have tried to reach out to Archbishop Milingo, who has unfortunately rejected our regular and honest advice.
"Other people in the Church, including the Holy Father, have tried to reach out to him, but he took this advice as a form of persecution. In spite of all the efforts made by us and others, he decided to go with his plans to marry, thereby turning his back on the Catholic Church. This implies that he is no longer a bishop nor part of the Catholic Church."
The statement added: "The former archbishop has betrayed his vows by attempting marriage while still under his priestly commitments. The defection of the former archbishop should not come as a surprise to us.
"Even among the apostles one of them did fall. His act portrays his failure to abide by sound apostolic tradition, which suddenly induced him not to perceive the advice from so many and discern the truth. He rather portrayed the others as not understanding his actions."
The statement concluded: "We invite all Christians to continue praying for the former archbishop in the hope that he will decide to repent and come back to the Church".