1, March 2018
Killed in (Peacekeeping) Action: 4 UN soldiers die in Mali 0
Four United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were killed in central Mali on Wednesday after their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by suspected militants.
The UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement that the casualties occurred when a convoy of peacekeepers hit the device along a road in the Mopti region.
“We have just received information from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali indicating that a UN military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device on the Boni-Douentza axis, in the region of Mopti in Mali. Preliminary reports indicate that four peacekeepers were killed and four others were wounded. Medical evacuations are currently ongoing,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
‘Undeterred’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” the IED attack and said such attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.
“These cowardly acts will not deter MINUSMA’s determination to support the Malian authorities in their efforts to protect civilians and accompany the Malian people in their quest for peace and stability,” the UN chief added.
The Wednesday roadside attack came a day after six Malian soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a mine in the Segou region. A forest ranger was also gunned down in another incident blamed on militants.
‘Cornered’
Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups in Mali have been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks on domestic and foreign forces in the African country, raising security concerns.
But the head of the MINUSMA has said the increased attacks are because the terrorists have come under intensified pressure.
“MINUSMA is currently upgrading its security presence in central Mali,” Mali mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said. “Cornered, the terrorists are multiplying their attacks.”
More than 11,000 UN peacekeepers have been deployed to Mali since 2013 to counter terrorist attacks and general lawlessness.
In late January, 14 soldiers were killed and 18 more wounded in an attack on their camp in Mali’s restive northern regions.
Extremists linked to al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012 but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
In June 2015, Mali’s government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of non-militant armed groups. But extremists still remain active in the area, and large tracts of the West African country are lawless.
Source: Presstv
1, March 2018
Cardinal Sarah: High-ranking prelates are trying to change Christian morality 0
Cardinal Sarah has pointed out that high-ranking prelates are trying to change Christian morality. The cardinal also said the West was ‘committing suicide’ by losing its Christian faith
Senior churchmen are undermining Church teaching on life, marriage and the family, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said.
In a speech in Belgium, the cardinal accused high-ranking prelates from “opulent nations” of trying to modify Christian morality, and attacked pressure groups that “with powerful financial means and ties to the media, attack the natural purpose of marriage and commit themselves to destroying the family unit.”
Cardinal Sarah made the remarks – reported in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino – in front of several senior Belgian churchmen, including Cardinal Josef De Kesel, the apostolic nuncio and Abbot Philippe Mawet.
Abbot Mawet had criticised Cardinal Sarah just days earlier in an article for Libre Belgique.
The cardinal said:
He continued:
During his visit to Belgium, Cardinal Sarah also gave an interview with Catholic media outlet Cathobel in which he repeated his criticism of fellow clergy.
“Faith has become lacking, not only on the level of the people of God but also among those responsible for the Church,” he said. “Sometimes we can ask ourselves if we really have faith.”
This lack of faith is also affecting the wider culture, he added:
“Not only is the West losing its soul, but it is committing suicide, because a tree without roots is condemned to death. I think that the West cannot renounce its roots, which created its culture and its values.”
The cardinal said “chilling things” were happening in the West, and Western nations were exporting those things to the developing world.
“I think that a parliament which authorizes the death of an innocent baby, without defence, is committing a grave act of violence against the human person.
“When abortion is imposed, especially on nations in the developing world, saying that if they do not accept it they will no longer receive aid, it is an act of violence. And it is no surprise.
“When God is abandoned, man is also abandoned; there is no longer a clear vision of who man is. This is a great anthropological crisis in the West. And it leads to people being treated like objects.”
Culled from the Catholic Herald