Musings From Abroad

Pope Francis cancels African trip to Congo, South Sudan, due to knee problem

Published

2 years ago

June 11, 2022

The planned visit of Pope Francis to Africa which was scheduled forJuly has been cancelled on doctors’ orders because troublesome knee problems, the Vatican said in a statement on Friday.

The cancellation of the trip has dashed the hopes of Catholic faithful in Congo and South Sudan who had looked forward to the historic visit of the 85-year-old pontiff, and has also raised questions about his health.

The statement quoted the Vatican as saying the July 2-7 visit which was meant to promote peace in the two African countries which have been grappling with with deadly violence, would be rescheduled “to a later date to be determined.”

“At the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee, the Holy Father has been forced to postpone, with regret, his Apostolic Journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to South Sudan,” the Vatican statement said.

Pope Francis had been due to visit South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland to “make a joint ecumenical appeal for peace” with the trip discussed as early as 2017, when South Sudan was still in the verge of a civil war, but security concerns kept postponing it.

An official with the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Rev. John Gbemyoro, who spoke on the postponed visit, said the news has dashed the expectations of Christians in the two troubled countries.

“We don’t love to hear it. But we are asking God to heal him quickly because we still need him to come to South Sudan,” Gbemyoro said.

On his part, the Archbishop of Juba, Stephen Ameyu Martin, told reporters that South Sudan President Salva Kiir was “a bit sad” but understood the reason for the postponement of the visit.

“What can we do? It’s a health problem,” the Archbishop said, reminding disappointed South Sudanese that it could happen to anyone.

Fears over the African visit were raised last week after the Pope who has been using a wheelchair for a month due to strained ligaments in his right knee which that have made walking and standing difficult and painful, cancelled many of his regular functions.

He has also refused to get surgery, and has instead received injections, kept the knee as immobile as possible and walked with a cane or the help of an aide.

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

5 days ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”