Africa

Nigerian Catholic priest Fr. Oliver Ortese characterized the U.S. military airstrikes on Islamic State terrorist targets in Sokoto state on Christmas Day as “Christians being freed from bondage.”

The U.S. has carried out a deadly Dec. 25 strike in northwestern Nigeria, with President Donald Trump stating the attack targeted Islamic State group terrorists who persecuted Christians in that nation.

Catholics in northwestern Nigeria are celebrating just days before Christmas, as the last group of students kidnapped from St. Mary's Catholic School in Papiri has been freed.

A Catholic bishop in South Sudan appealed for peace, respect of human life and the protection of civilians in Sudan, as the town of Kalogi, South Kordofan region, reeled from the deaths of over 100 people killed in drone strikes.

During the Nov. 23 Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV appealed for the release of over 300 children and teachers abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria.

The Diocese of Auchi, Nigeria, announced the death of a young seminarian who, along with two fellow seminarians, was kidnapped by bandits in July.

Persecuted Nigerian Christians are embracing U.S. President Donald Trump's designation of their homeland a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) as a long-desired answer to their anguished prayers.

As a paramilitary group announced the capture of el-Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, Catholic Church leaders amplified calls for the protection of "forgotten" civilians -- including thousands of children -- trapped in the western Sudanese city.

The Central African Republic is one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world. For years, it has been ravaged by civil war, tribal conflicts and a lack of prospects for young people. It was here that a Capuchin priest decided to start something that might have sounded too crazy to many — a music school.

Each day, Dominic Villeneuve extols God for accompanying him as he steps into a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane to conduct humanitarian missions within the Democratic Republic of Congo.