Search: “africa”

Emigration, displacement and human trafficking are issues that profoundly affect Africa and, by extension, the rest of the world. Almost all of Africa’s countries face these problems. Conflict and poverty have driven tens of millions out of their traditional home areas and, while many seek a better life abroad, the large majority remain displaced within […]

The Muslim-Christian fault line stretches from Senegal across the Sahel to Ethiopia and along Africa’s Indian Ocean seaboard. The potential for widened conflagrations and confrontations is high because of increasingly aggressive Islamist movements and because of African Christian evangelism gaining converts from within Muslim communities. This has been a major factor contributing to war or […]

Africa’s continuing struggle with poverty has taken on some new dynamics, but is no less urgent. As explained in the economic section, the causes are many and complex. For a region with many natural resources and a vast, young workforce, the situation should not be as bad as it is. This is partly due to […]

Disease still looms as a deathly spectre over Africa. A higher proportion of infants, children and adults are lost to disease in Africa than anywhere else. Tens of billions of dollars in productivity are lost each year to the effects of disease upon the working population. Of specific concern are: HIV/AIDS. Although no longer at […]

Reducing local causes of poverty, particularly corruption, would reinject many billions of dollars back into the grassroots economy. Were greater economic accountability imposed and budgets actually spent on developing trade and production, many could be lifted out of poverty. Were wars and conflicts ended, infrastructure developed and education and health improved, a massive difference could […]

East Africa remains a place of instability and regional violence, despite the 2018 peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which itself came as an answer to prayer. Somalia’s descent into anarchy plumbed new depths. A combination of deep poverty, lack of resources, famine, historical colonial influences and the deeply clan-based societal structure creates a dangerous […]

Sudan’s civil strife has been the norm for decades. It became somewhat of an international pariah due to the persistent violence and oppression endorsed by the regime. The former president has been convicted of corruption and money laundering, and faces international criminal charges of war crimes and genocide. But now, Sudan’s prospects are threatened by […]

Nigeria and the Sahel, through which runs the north-south fault line between Muslim and Christian majority areas, are in profound need of prayer. The sporadic outbreaks of violence in Nigeria escalated into more frequent and intense pogroms against Christians by increasingly bloodthirsty fundamentalist Muslim groups (often importing fighters from farther afield). The Nigerian-originated Islamist and […]

Central Africa, where ethnic and international conflicts have brutalized the populations. Tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples in Rwanda and Burundi led to civil wars and periodic genocidal massacres over the past five decades. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 triggered a chain reaction of war and waves of refugees, affecting surrounding countries. The Second […]

The mission force of African agencies and missionaries continues to grow and diversify. Lacking the established infrastructures and financial resources of the West, Africans find creative new ways to train and send church planters. Specific areas of praise: Research. A number of more specific research initiatives – usually on the national or regional level — […]