Curator

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Pope Francis will not visit South Sudan this year, the Vatican said on Tuesday, after an Italian newspaper reported that a mooted trip had been put off because it was considered too dangerous. South Sudan is suffering from famine and a civil war that started more than three years ago. Francis was planning a trip with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who represents the majority religion in the country on Oct. 15. “A possible trip has been under study, but it will not take place this year,” Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said. He reacted to a report by Rome-based paper Il Messaggero, according to which the decision not to go was taken “a few days ago” after a delegation that went to South Sudan concluded that security was too precarious. Francis had said in February that he was considering a trip to South Sudan. On May 3, the Catholic Archbishop of the South Sudanese capital, Juba, Paulino Loro, told the La Stampa newspaper that he was working to welc...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Igbo for Nigeria Movement has strongly frowned at the sit-at-home order on May 30 by some pro-Biafra groups agitating for Biafra independence. INM, while describing the plan as a journey to self-destruction warned Ndigbo, especially those clamouring for the return of the defunct Biafra Republic to think of its consequences and embrace on Nigeria. A statement by the National Leader of the group, Maxi Igwe Ifeanyi warned that the mistake some Igbo leaders made fifty years ago that led to the civil war should be avoided at all costs. Ifeanyi said the war inflicted serious injury on Nigeria that has refused to heal. According to him, the divisions persist not because efforts were not made at reconciliation but because there are those that continually pick at old wounds, preventing healing, so that they have the excuse to brainwash the younger generations that were not witnesses to the horrors of the three and half years starting 1967. He said, “Our p...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Police in Borno on Wednesday confirmed the killing of three suspected female suicide bombers after a failed attack near Maiduguri. Mr Victor Isuku, the spokesman for the command made the confirmation in a statement in Maiduguri. “Today at about 17.55hours, three female suicide bombers, suspected to have been conveyed by motorcycle and dropped at a distance to Mamanti village in Molai area, were sighted and intercepted by vigilant security operatives. “In the process, they hurriedly detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, killing themselves only,” Isuku said. He said that a team from the Police Explosive Ordinance Department was promptly drafted to the scene to sanitise the area and restore normalcy, adding there was no civilian casualty. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the police had confirmed the killing of three suspected suicide bombers after a foiled attack at the University of Maiduguri on May 19. NAN also reports that pol...