Sudan atrocities

Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group are committing war crimes in Darfur, says the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor. https://t.co/DOFsCYL0oq

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 30, 2024

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Mohamed said the RSF “militia” is committing large-scale, systematic attacks which aim “to force ethnic cleansing and identity killing” of Darfur’s Masalit ethnic community. He said it is up to the prosecutor to determine if this amounts to genocide.

More on the Rapid support force here.

 

* The RSF evolved from so-called Janjaweed militias that fought in a conflict in the 2000s in the Darfur region, where they were used by the government of long-ruling President Omar al-Bashir to help the army put down a rebellion. More than 2 million people were displaced and as many as 300,000 killed from 2003-2008. International Criminal Court prosecutors accused government officials and Janjaweed commanders of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Beginning in 2015, the RSF, along with Sudan's army, began sending troops to fight in the war in Yemen alongside Saudi and Emirati troops, allowing Hemedti to forge ties with the Gulf powers.

the saudis are opposing the Houthis in that civil war. So essentially they are mercenaries for Saudi

the article describes their part in the present civil war in the Sudan which is tribal, and is about who gets to keep the gold.

LINK

and Russian mercenaries, the Wagner group, was involved because they wanted some of the gold.... are they still involved? Last article a couple months ago.

Sudan, Houthi and the overlooked wars there.

 in the last week, we saw Iran hit Balochi rebels who hid in Pakistan, and now Pakistan hit them back. And today there are reports that Jordan is hitting drug smugglers in Syria.

so although Gaza dominates the news, a lot of other stuff is going on in the Middle East and is spilling into Africa.

if you really want your head to spin, check out what is going on in Sudan, where recent fighting has displaced 7 million people. 

It's about gold and petroleum. The Wagner group of Russian mercenaries were there, and the local so called Rapid Reaction force is busy spreading war all over the region, including helping the Saudis fight the Houthi.

Sigh. So many bad guys.

African christian report on western progressive dogma

 Apparently the NYTimes finally got around to noticing that the African bishops were sort of angry at the so called Pope for pushing the gay agenda by blessing irregular sexual relationships.

Of course, in Africa this would impact polygamists who want to convert, but the real push back is against the homosexual part, for many reasons

NYTimes is behind a paywall, but the blog GetReligion who reports on the western media's inability to get religion correct in their reports, has a summary here.

NYT puts in the word fear, implying the evil idea of homophobia, but GR asks if maybe they are talking about fear of Islamic attacks. 

And of course the NYTimes doesn't see what Cardinal Sarah has pointed out: that this so called blessing a threat to the institution of the family, which is the core of Africa, (and is already under attack from a capitalism that forced men to work away from family, and under attack by various NGOs and UN treaties that are pushing contraception, abortion and promiscuity including in the schools).

Left out of most western press stories quoting him: The part where he says Africa will defend the family. (a recent book by African bishops essentially said the same thing: That Africa will be the ones who defend the family just as Africa protected the Christ child and Holy Family when they fled to Egypt from Herod).

No, here is how the NYT frames the problem:

Home to 236 million of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, Africa accounted for more than half of the 16.2 million people who joined the church worldwide in 2021. As bishops and other church leaders on the continent deal with the fallout among their parishioners over the declaration, broader concerns have been raised about whether it could lead to a rift between Pope Francis and a region that is a demographic bright spot for Catholicism.

yup. it's about politics and power.

The GR article then notes something we also see: African priests in the USA who are missionaries. When I lived in Oklahoma, we were essentially mission territory and yes we did have African priests.

 

this recent USA Today headline: “African priests fill American pulpits as 'reverse missionaries,' revitalizing parishes.” Why are so many priests from Africa ending up in America? That’s pretty simply: African Catholics have more children, more converts and more new priests than Americans.

USA Today noted: 

After decades of U.S. missionaries traveling to Africa to convert and preach, the trend is reversing: Across the country, parishes now rely on the ministry of international priests, many from East Africa and Nigeria. ... working in the black areas? Well maybe. but the culture is different.

Actually, there are also a lot of Polish and Vietnamese priests, who seem to be Catholic, out there too. Why?

Meanwhile, the number of American priests is tumbling: there are 10,000 fewer priests now than there were two decades ago. maybe because a lot of seminaries were hostile to men who wanted to be Caholic. Goodbye Good Men...which we saw in the Altoona diocese when I worked there. Is it still that bad? Don't ask me: I live in the Philippines where those leading tend to be into green theology and hip stuff but here in the rural areas, are still into traditional fiestas etc. but alas many are now joining Protestant churches to find Jesus.

But the push of the gay agenda into churches is also splitting other churches,such as the Anglicans and Methodists, including those in the USA.

Rice growing causes methane. Duh.

 We Asians are aware that growing rice causes methane release.

Asians have long been blamed by the global warming crazies because we eat rice.

Flooding rice paddies and plowing weeds etc into the mud to rot and fertilize the crops results in methane, a greenhouse gas. So we rice farmers are under pressure to limit the flooding of the rice paddies.

dirty little secret: this method lowers methane release, but increases Nitrous oxide release, which is another greenhouse gas even worse than Methane.

But now Nature magazine is blaming Africa because they too are busy growing rice.

Africa has been identified as a major driver of the current rise in atmospheric methane, and this has been attributed to emissions from wetlands and livestock. Here we show that rapidly increasing rice cultivation is another important source, and we estimate that it accounts for 7% of the current global rise in methane emissions.

so what is their answer? Stop growing rice and starve you peasants. 

Continued rice expansion to feed a rapidly growing population should be considered in climate change mitigation goals.

This will alert the western green NGOs to stop Africans from doing this.

In contrast, China is helping them to grow rice.

getting them to plant hybrid rice with a higher yield, and helping with loans to update their farming practices.

The article goes into details how they are doing this, including finding which type of rice grows best and making a rice institute there to grow seeds for locals to plant.

 

More than 20 African countries are planting hybrid rice, and China continues to provide agricultural technical support to countries and regions in need, helping countries strengthen agricultural capacity building related to hybrid rice.

Internet for Africans off the web

 

Starlink now available in Mozambique! https://t.co/j2t09i8wJo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2024

EU Treaty dangers

 From MSNews

they note that it favors Europe in a way that could undermine local industries and even agriculture.

The EU-ACP treaty could exacerbate existing trade imbalances. The EU, as a highly developed economic bloc, may have the upper hand in negotiations, potentially leading to terms that favour European interests....

Signing the EU-ACP treaty may expose local industries to stiff competition from more advanced European counterparts. This could jeopardize the growth and sustainability of Nigerian industries, leading to job losses and hindered economic diversification.

 

...  The agricultural sector, a crucial component of Nigeria’s economy, could face challenges under the EU-ACP treaty. The influx of subsidized European agricultural products might undermine the competitiveness of local farmers. This could have detrimental effects on food security and the livelihoods of those dependent on agriculture. 

and I suspect the protect the environment types will pressure their farmers to stop growing food because global warming... 

Bullying Africa to accept the gender agenda of the UN

 LINK article from Nov 2023

Holdouts cast shadow over new EU pact with African, Caribbean and Pacific states

The EU this week finally sealed an agreement on a new treaty that will govern relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) community, but the refusal of 35 of the 79 ACP states to sign it has cast a shadow over its merits. ....

so 45 percent of those supposed to sign the agreement refused to go along with it. 

The new treaty is designed to serve as a legal framework guiding relations between the EU’s 27 nations and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries for the next two decades.

However, at the formal signing ceremony in Samoa on Wednesday (15 November), 35 ACP countries refused to sign the agreement which will provisionally enter into force in January 2024.

The holdouts include 20 African countries, 9 Caribbean states and six in the Pacific.

The repeated delays have been a growing source of frustration for EU officials, with many worrying that the bloc’s failure to ratify the treaty would be viewed as bad faith by its partners.,,...

Obey the EU or else? who died and made them king? 

The article says they won't sign because these countries are mad at the EU's position on the Ukraine and Gaza, but you know, those two wars post date the writing of the treaty.

So maybe it's about something else. 

Warsaw had withheld its signature in protest at the treaty’s language promoting non-discrimination, LGBT+ rights and gender equality, while a handful of African states had previously indicated their reluctance to ratify the treaty over its provisions on non-discrimination which, they say, promote homosexuality....

.

so the problem is that these countries just won't agree to being bullied into the EU's gender agenda, which they hide by using the language of human rights. 

it establishes “common principles” in key areas such as human rights, climate change and migration...

“Now it’s imperative that both the EU and ACP states translate their commitments into concrete actions, involving youth and civil society organisations in working towards the achievement of shared goals,” Goerlitz said.

 shared goals? No, the goals of the EU.

Pope Francis once called this cultural imperialism.

But one Trad Catholic source pointed out that maybe Pope Francis arranged his brand new dogma chief who has only had the job for a couple months to quickly put out a pro gay blessing to impose this on the African church.

From the Remanant

...Fiducia Supplicans – the Vatican Declaration approving blessings for same-sex couples. This has nothing to do with pastoral sensitivity, and everything to do with politics, Agenda 2030, the SDGs of the United Nations, and the EU-ACO Treaty between the European Union and seventy-nine poorer countries...

So why are the African Catholic Bishops resisting Pope Francis to his face? Because forty-seven African countries will be most negatively impacted by the EU-ACP Treaty, which will force African nations to embrace the ... European Union position on human sexuality.

With the Vatican signaling change to the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, African bishops will be cut off at the knees.

the African bishops are of course refusing to sign off on the Pope's so called blessing of gay couples, (and divorced people living with another spouse, and polygamous couples). But no one in the west is listening to them.

So will the prophecy that Africa, who nurtured the Christ child when Herod persecuted him, also nurture the Catholic church faithful when the world decides to persecute them by destroying the faith?

Don't ask me. I'm a doctor, not a prophet.