Tag: Africa

Egyptian officials now believe that an attack on a church which killed at least 21 worshippers in Alexandria was the work of a suicide bomber.

Christians in Nigeria were attacked at several locales in Nigeria on Christmas Eve. Four separate explosions rocked the Jos region in central Nigeria, killing as many as 38.

A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders have issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. Shaikh Ould Zain, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, says the scholars believe cutting young girls’ genitals to limit their sexual activity as women is against religious beliefs. He said the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently in Nigeria, partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria’s 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire

Pope Benedict has warned that a form of colonialism continues to blight Africa

Cedars-Sinai cardiologist Dr. Lawrence Czer makes regular trips to Africa with his Christian church to help the needy by providing free medical care. On his medical missions to Africa, Dr. Lawrence Czer has dealt with poverty, lack of electricity, bad accommodations—and military checkpoints. In Sierra Leone, Czer and his team were sometimes stopped by rifle-toting soldiers who simply wouldn’t let them through.

Nigeria welcomed the death in police custody of a hardline Islamist leader but human rights groups condemned an unlawful killing. Muhammed Yusuf died of multiple gunshot wounds late on Thursday less than an hour after he was captured by police in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.