That's the sum of the situation in Northern African nation right now.

The third Sudanese civil war - which began exactly a year ago - can be held accountable for that. And more.

Fleeing Church

The Catholic Church in Sudan has almost vanished from Sudan, says the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

It says the Khartoum preparatory seminary has closed its doors. Some seminarians escaped to neighbouring South Sudan where they continue their training.

They and the work the Catholic Church has been doing in Sudan will be missed, ACN says.

Before the war, Catholics represented five percent of the population.

Despite its tiny toe-hold in the 90 percent Sunni Muslim country, ACN says the Catholic Church "was tolerated and could run some hospitals and schools, although it wasn't allowed to openly proclaim the faith".

Safe haven no more

ACN points out that the Sudanese people have always considered the Church as a "safe haven".

When the war broke out many took refuge in churches.

However, after many missionaries and religious communities were forced to flee Sudan, parishes, hospitals and schools stopped functioning.

The bishop of Khartoum, Michael Didi, has not been able to return to his diocese. The bishop of El Obeid now lives in the cathedral because his house was partially destroyed.

Light of hope

Although the Church's continued existence in Sudan is in question, there are signs the destruction is not total.

"Sixteen new Christians were baptised in Port Sudan during the Easter Vigil and 34 adults were confirmed in Kosti.

"So we have to keep hope alive in the midst of darkness" one of ACN's Sudan project partners says.

"The Church in South Sudan is getting ready for the future by helping the Sudanese Christians to prepare for tomorrow's peace."

Tomorrow's peace

The trouble is, "tomorrow's peace" could be a while coming.

The current conflict in Sudan broke out exactly a year ago.

Over 13,900 people have died since then and over 8.1 million people have fled the country.

Armed clashes have broken out between the Sudan Army and the Rapid Support Forces (a paramilitary group).

Although both sides jointly deposed the transitional regime established after the overthrow of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, they have different aims for themselves.

The two groups have been clashing to control the country's wealth, especially gold and oil.

ACN says as neither side is willing to give in, the future of the civil war looks bleak.

"The situation is dire; countless women and children, starving and traumatised, face unbearable circumstances. Action is not just necessary; it's a moral imperative to prevent further devastation" says UN refugee agency UNHCR.

CAFOD, the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, reports that a huge humanitarian crisis involving 25 million Sudanese is unfolding.

Help hampered

"Access constraints, security risks and logistical challenges are hampering the humanitarian response.

"Without incomes and amid disrupted aid deliveries and harvests, people cannot get food, prompting warnings of worsening hunger and malnutrition in parts of the country" ACN says.

Source

• Crux Now
• Catholic News Agency

The agencies working in the area are warning that starvation and famine threaten hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Catastrophic conditions in Gaza

In a joint statement, the Caritas agencies of the three countries say the situation in Gaza is rapidly worsening. Over 31,300 people have been killed and 73,100 injured in the conflict so far.

"Starvation has become a very real danger.

"Already 27 people, including 23 children, have died of malnutrition and about half a million people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity" the Caritas agencies say.

Pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need adds urgency and strength to Caritas's alarm.

The people "are closer than ever to the crucified Saviour" stresses Aid to the Church in Need.

In its most recent report it says the Christian community in Gaza "is going through the worst period" since the start of the war on 7 October 2023.

Sr Nabila Saleh of the Holy Family parish in Al Zeyton calls the situation distressing.

The church is currently sheltering 128 families — a total of 512 Christians, Catholics and Orthodox. Among the families are 120 children under the age of 18. Sixty people have disabilities. There are also 84 elderly people.

Demands for humanitarian access

The Caritas groups are urging "all diplomatic, political, legal and economic means possible" to establish guaranteed humanitarian corridors into Gaza. These corridors are vital links as they ensure safe passage for food, water and other supplies.

Caritas has rejected proposals for airdrops or maritime deliveries as "undignified" and "neither viable nor sustainable".

"A single truck can deliver up to 10 times as much aid as an airdrop" its statement says.

It then quotes the World Food Programme's deputy executive director, saying "Airdrops are a last resort and will not avert famine. We need entry points to northern Gaza".

Australia urged to follow Canada and New Zealand

The agencies have called on Australia to restore funding to UNRWA, the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees. This would put it in line with Canadian and New Zealand policies.

"As the people of Gaza mark the holy periods of Lent and Ramadan, we call on our prime ministers to act on their conviction 'that a sustainable ceasefire is necessary to finding a path towards securing lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians'," they say.

Ceasefire and Prisoner Release Demanded

Among other urgent demands, the Caritas agencies called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire by all parties, They are also calling for all hostages and people whom Hamas and Israeli authorities have arbitrarily detained to be released.

The joint statement from the aid agencies followed grave warnings last month by the prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

These warnings focused on indications Israel was planning a ground offensive into Rafah, which they said would be "catastrophic".

A month on, the Catholic aid agencies say they are "disturbed to note that Israel is not heeding their call to 'listen to the international community'".

Sources

• Supplied
• CNA

Confirming that terribly sad fact, Catholic Relief Services reports, "Conflict and a lack of aid has triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 80 percent of the population in need of assistance, including 2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition.

"Hunger is on the rise, and basic services like education, water, health and sanitation have deteriorated. These conditions triggered an unprecedented cholera outbreak in Yemen - the worst in history."

And to be honest, Yemen was a blip on my radar screen, that is, until I met Barbara Deller.

For 12 years Deller worked as a hospital nurse-midwife in Yemen, and later served as a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, advising ministries of health in numerous countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

She explained to me that when Houthi rebels took control of Yemen's government, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia attacked the Houthis because the Houthis are backed by Iran - Saudi Arabia's archrival.

Deller added that the Saudi Arabian-led bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels, as well as the counterattacks by the Houthi's, have greatly increased the suffering of this already desperately impoverished nation of 30 million people.

All sides have resorted to awful atrocities in this war.

However, Saudi Arabia has killed most of the civilians and bombed away much of the country - destroying numerous hospitals, schools, residential areas, water treatment facilities, food manufacturing facilities and farmland.

Furthermore, with U.S. military aid and support from several other nations, Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen for the last six years with ongoing airstrikes; and is suffocating Yemen with a crippling air, land and sea blockade.

The Saudi-led campaign could not continue without the military and political support of the U.S.

Friends in Yemen recently shared with Deller that life is hard, bombing continues, and they are constantly in fear.

According to the United Nations "Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and the situation for the millions of affected people is deteriorating … Malnutrition rates in Yemen are at record highs as the country is speeding towards the worst famine the world has seen in decades".

Although President Biden announced the U.S. would no longer supply Saudi Arabia with "offensive" weapons in its war against Yemen, however, he also indicated that his administration would provide the Saudis with "defensive" military support - like providing commercial contractors to service Saudi warplanes which continue to kill countless innocent Yemeni children and adults.

Any support of Saudi Arabia in its brutal war against suffering Yemenis is unconscionable.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net

We could no longer look away.

The tragedy of a father and daughter from El Salvador drowning while he tried to save her from being swept away by the strong river current reminded the nation of the horror of the unfolding humanitarian crisis at the border.

We must see them.

Martínez was leading his family from El Salvador to legally seek asylum in the United States.

But he was not able to get through the long wait at the border crossing, so he sought to swim the Rio Grande, stand on American soil, turn himself and his family in to Border Patrol and ask for asylum there.

All of that is legal.

But the river took them before they had a chance.

Martínez and his daughter were not the only migrants to die this week.

A 20-year-old migrant woman and three small children were found dead in the desert near McAllen, Texas, having succumbed to the searing heat.

In addition to these deaths, the news from last weekend of migrant children held in detention in Border Patrol stations in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, without access to soap, toothbrushes, diapers or proper care, rightly caused an outcry from the public.

Instead of the border security debate dominating the immigration headlines, Americans are now more fully seeing the human suffering of desperate migrants fleeing from home to a country that they hope will be a place of refuge.

The numbers of migrants coming are staggering.

People protest against U.S. immigration policies on the American side, right, of the Mexico-America border near Tijuana on Dec. 10, 2018. RNS photo by Jair Cabrera Torres

The month of May saw almost 133,000 apprehensions at the U.S. southern border, with 96,000 consisting either of family units or unaccompanied children.

The large numbers of migrants now turning themselves in to Border Patrol and asking for asylum has overwhelmed our system.

Our laws require that we hear and process asylum claims and that anyone who sets foot on U.S. soil can claim asylum, but with the government's primary focus being on zero tolerance, deterrence, security, detention, deportation and keeping migrants away from the border, the number of families and children presenting themselves for asylum is too much to properly administer.

The Border Patrol is overwhelmed and chaos has ensued.

Hearing these stories this week reminded me of what I've seen in my own trips to the border in the past year, most recently to El Paso less than two months ago.

There, I connected with a network of churches receiving from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants a day.

The churches gave the migrants food and drink and provided a temporary place to rest before they continued their journey to join family in other parts of America.

I'll never forget seeing the hollow eyes on the faces of exhausted migrants huddled on cots in a church sanctuary that had been haphazardly turned into a migrant shelter in El Paso.

When I arrived, I was told that these migrants had been released by ICE that day to the church.

It was midafternoon, but what struck me was that they were so very tired.

They sat in the quiet church worship hall in silence.

Some slept.

Some just sat and stared.

Babies didn't even cry.

Mothers held their children close and just looked ahead.

No one said a word.

No laughter, no conversation.

No crying of the children. Just silence.

They were all so tired.

I was told by the pastors of the church that many of the migrants who came to them day after day suffered from violence, rape, extortion and threats of being forced into drug gangs.

Many of them saw loved ones murdered and they lived under threats of death at the hands of cartels and drug gangs.

Corrupt police and government officials could not protect the poor who were being used and extorted in these countries that are descending into lawlessness.

Yet, prayers from the pastors, shelter, food, love, hospitality, concern, and being received and embraced as fully human encouraged them greatly.

The work of Catholic, mainline Protestant and evangelical churches along the border over the past several months has been immense.

I've seen with my own eyes, and through my research with the Evangelical Immigration Table, churches engaging in this hard but needed work of receiving migrants in San Diego-Tijuana; Nogales, Ariz.; El Paso, Texas; and elsewhere.

These churches truly are being the hands and feet of Jesus.

But the other side of the work of the church is that it is often fellow Christians who come to the border from the south and make their way across.

I've heard from multiple sources that the majority of the migrants coming from Central America are evangelical Christians.

I was told by a church shelter manager in Las Cruces, New Mexico, that as many as 75 percent of the migrants they served were evangelicals.

Others in El Paso said the proportion of evangelical migrants was well over 50 percent. In significant ways, the ministry of receiving migrants by churches at the border is the ministry of the church embracing Christ himself.

Not long ago, a Nazarene pastor friend of mine was invited to meet with a group of asylum-seekers at the border.

Among them was a man named Oscar and his little girl.

He had fled to the U.S. to keep her safe.

They shared a meal and then Oscar, who said he was part of an evangelical church, told my friend something profound.

"Somos familia," he said. "Somos hermanos."

We are family. We are brothers.

Was this the same Oscar?

What matters is what the asylum-seeker my friend met said.

"Somos familia. Somos hermanos."

John Garland, pastor of San Antonio Mennonite Fellowship, has also recently written that approximately 80 percent of the migrants that his church receives are evangelical Christians.

I write this not because I think that evangelical Christians have more value than people of other religions or no religion at all, but because I think it is important for American Christians to know that the migrants coming to us are also our brothers and sisters in Christ.

They are family.

How we treat them and see them is how we treat Jesus (Matthew 25:40).

I believe that Jesus sees these desperate people. I believe they matter to him.

Jesus saw Óscar and Valeria. Jesus saw the woman and the three little children who died in the desert.

He sees all of the crowds of migrants, harassed and helpless and fleeing from a home where they are no longer safe to journey to a place they have never been.

He wants us to see them too.

Can we, like Jesus, be moved with compassion for the crowds of migrants coming to us? Can we pray for them and weep for migrants like Óscar and Valeria?

Jesus sees them.

Do we?

• Alan Cross

Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis of this time, according to the United Nations. Read more

The United Nations estimates 8.4 million people are on the brink of famine.

So far at least 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since the war broke out in Yemen in March 2015.

Cafod, a Catholic Aid agency, says the Saudi-led coalition's assault on Hodeida, Yemen's main port city, will have a "catastrophic impact" on the ability of relief groups to get food, medicine and other aid to vulnerable Yemeni families in urgent need of assistance.

This is because 90 percent of all Yemen's food imports pass through Hodeida.

"Any disruption to the port's operation will affect the entire country," says Giovanna Reda, CAFOD's head of humanitarian programmes for the Middle East.

"CAFOD [the overseas aid agency of the bishops of England and Wales] partner staff in the country remain on the frontline, doing everything they can to reach people who are in urgent need of humanitarian aid."

"Hunger affects 17 million Yemenis, which is 60 per cent of the population. People do not know where and when they will get their next meal."

Furthermore, Reda says millions don't have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation.

"Last year, the country faced the largest outbreak of cholera, claiming the lives of thousands of people."

About 22 million people in Yemen, representing about three-quarters of the population, are dependent on food aid.

Almost 400,000 children under the age of five are severely or acutely malnourished. Many have died of starvation.

The UN is calling for all parties to the conflict "to meet their obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and take active steps to respect international humanitarian law."

Source

• ABC
• The Catholic Register
• Christian Today
• Image: newsweekme

United Nations (UN) officials have expressed concern about the fate of the South Sudanese people.

The mandate for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country is set to expire.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council the South Sudanese people "have simply suffered far too much for far too long and we must not take their resilience against incredible odds for granted".

Lacroix is the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

South Sudan became an independent nation in 2011.

The mainly Christian and Animist population had been involved in a civil war with Muslim citizens - now mostly located in Sudan - for decades.

The civil war sprang up again in 2013, between the majority Dinka and Nuer tribes.

The net result is famine, the possibility of genocide and over three million displaced people.

While political and economic instability continue, "humanitarian needs will remain dire," Mark Lowcock says.

Lowcock is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

He estimates about half South Sudan's 12.23 million population will be relying on emergency food aid by early 2018.

Although both Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had planned to visit South Sudan in October, the visit was cancelled for the meanwhile.

The deteriorating security situation was the reason their visit was cancelled.

Francis has since held a prayer service for South Sudan and Congo, which is also suffering from the effects of war.

In his homily during the prayer service, Francis said "...Prayer works by the power of God, for whom nothing is impossible".

Source

• Crux
• Upper Nile Times

"But an incident in 2013 changed my perspective on the Syrian crisis, and I now find it morally indefensible not to help where I can." Read about Smalley's experience in New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand government's response to the unprecedented humanitarian crisis is gratifying.

But does that absolve us of individual our individual responsibility?

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is accepting donations to the Peace in the Middle East Fund to assist with the ongoing humanitarian response.

As with all their work and that of the entire global Caritas network, Caritas New Zealand Aotearoa provides assistance in the form of humanitarian aid, development programmes and advocacy against poverty and injustice regardless of religion.

"We have worked to help Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict, and Caritas is committed to continuing to provide essential supplies to those in need throughout the region," says Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand director Julianne Hickey.

There are 1.2 million Syrian refugees living in neighbouring Lebanon.

Caritas' work in Lebanon is part of a regional response to the crisis that includes supplying food, water and shelter to desperate refugees families in Iraq, Turkey and Jordan.

Jordan has one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand will look to provide food, shelter, medical care, counselling, education and other aid to the thousands of displaced people.

Echoing the words of Cardinal John Dew in a recent interview, Hickey says: "The growing number of refugees around the world has created a crisis which no country or organisation committed to human rights can ignore."

• Since 2011, civil war in Syria has left 12.2 million people in need of assistance and created one of the largest refugee crises in history.
• Eight million people have been forced from their homes inside Syria.
• More than 4 million are either living in neighbouring countries, or making the perilous journey to Europe in search of a new life.
• This is equivalent to the entire New Zealand population being displaced by war and looking for a new home.

Kiwi photographers document reality of refugee crisis

Donations Website: www.caritas.org.nz

Source

• Supplied: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: dailymail.co.uk

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' agency for justice, peace and development, and incorporates Mahitahi - Catholic Overseas Volunteers. We are working for a world free of poverty and injustice through community development, advocacy, education, and emergency relief.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories.

A state of emergency has already been declared in Enga and Southern highlands.

The El Niño typically linked to dryness and frosts are often an early symptom of the phenomenon, weather experts say.

Papua New Guinea's prime minister has visited areas affected by drought and frosts as the government deploys almost US$9 million in relief funds to affected parts.

O'Neill says the government is making preparations for a potential worsening of drought conditions due to an extended El Niño and the effects of climate change.

He says the National Agricultural Research Institute has embarked on visits to affected areas to provide free crop seedlings so that people can return to gardening and start replanting crops to sustain themselves.

Ezekiel Peter the general secretary of the PNG Gutnius Lutheran Church, has been appointed to lead its just established National Committee on Drought and Frost Relief.

He's based in Wabag in Enga province, one of the Highlands provinces hardest hit by the drought which has dried up rivers, and frosts which have killed vital food gardens.

Ezekiel is urging the national government to move faster in getting emergency food relief to drought and frost affected parts of the country.

He says while some areas have food reserves, the government needs to respond much more quickly to the disaster than it has so far.

The provincial administrator in Enga Province says they are hoping a consignment of food aid sent by the national government will arrive before the weekend.

Samson Amean says while about a quarter of a million people have been affected by severe frosts many others are suffering as a result of two months of drought.

Aid workers said it was too early to assess the damage to the country's coffee industry, but added that Papua New Guinea would face a potential humanitarian emergency if O'Neil's assessment comes to pass.

"Everyone has their own garden and they rely very heavily on it for food. If their gardens are destroyed by frost or it becomes very dry because of a lack of water then there could be a significant proportion of the population in food stress," said Blossum Gilmour, CARE Papua New Guinea's assistant country director.

Source

• reuters.com
• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• radionnz.co.nz
• Image: abc.net.au

The spotlight is no longer shining brightly on Nepal but the human suffering continues.

Rain has already begun to fall and will intensify as the monsoon season begins, bringing landslides and disease to many already desperate communities.

"We are shaken but not beaten; we shall rise as one stronger Nepal. It may take a little longer but rise we shall," says Fr Pius Perumana, Director of Caritas Nepal.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is still appealing for donations to provide humanitarian relief to those affected by this major emergency in Nepal.

Despite the many people that have already been reached, some areas are very difficult to access and Caritas teams are using tractors or travelling on foot to reach some of the more isolated villages.

Thokarpa is a village like this where Caritas has provided relief supplies to people and is supporting a Health Post treating the injured and ill.

Staffed by two dedicated young workers, the post has been able to treat more than 400 people in the past month, despite severe shortages in basic medicines after the earthquakes.

"During the day, we forget our sorrows by treating people. But by the night, we too miss our homes and dear ones."

"That makes us sad, but we are not the only victims here," assistant health worker Ganga Pathak (24) said.

Ms Pathak operates the Outpatient Department services, while her co-worker Rewati Thapa (20) handles delivery cases.

Donations to assist with Caritas' humanitarian response can be made by:

• Donate online using a credit card
• Internet banking - account #03 0518 0211216 00
• Phoning 0800 22 10 22 to make credit card donations

Source

• caritas.org.nz
• Image: caritas.org.nz

Caritas Internationalis president Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told a Rome conference on Monday that there are 13 million Syrians in desperate need.

More than four million Iraqis and Syrians are refugees in their own countries, he said.

Gaza has seen 10,000 homes and 70 per cent of its factories destroyed this summer, the cardinal added.

"As part of the humanitarian community, we are confronted with the greatest crisis the world has faced since the Second World War," he said.

Cardinal Maradiaga urged governments to seek a negotiated solution to the conflicts rather than a military one.

He also called for the end of the Israeli blockade of Gaza and a return to the borders recognised in 1967.

He said countries beyond Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey should accept their "fair share" of refugees from Syria and Iraq.

The cardinal said that governments "must agree to a total cessation of arms transfers to the Middle East countries engulfed by conflict," noting that some countries providing arms were even members of the UN Security Council.

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