L' Observateur Burundi

The United Methodist Church moved toward becoming more progressive and LGBTQ-affirming during U.S. regional meetings this month that included the election of its second openly gay bishop. Conservatives say the developments will only accelerate their exit from one of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations.

Each of the UMC’s five U.S. jurisdictions — meeting separately in early November — approved similarly worded measures aspiring to a future church where “LGBTQIA+ people will be protected, affirmed, and empowered.”

They also passed non-binding measures asking anyone to withdraw from leadership roles if they’re planning to leave the denomination soon — a category that almost entirely includes conservatives moving toward the exits.

The denomination still officially bans same-sex marriage and the ordination of any “self-avowed, practicing homosexual,” and only a legislative gathering called the General Conference can change that.

But this month’s votes show growing momentum — at least in the American half of the global church — to defy these policies and seek to reverse them at the next legislative gathering in 2024.

Supporters and opponents of these measures drew from the same metaphor to say their church is either becoming more or less of a “big tent,” as the United Methodists have long been described as a theologically diverse, mainstream denomination.

“It demonstrates that the big tent has collapsed,” said the Rev. Jay Therrell, president of the conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association, which has been helping churches that want to leave the denomination.

“For years, bishops have told traditionalists that there is room for everyone in the United Methodist Church,” he said. “Not one single traditionalist bishop was elected. Moreover, we now have the most progressive or liberal council of bishops in the history of Methodism, period.”

But Jan Lawrence, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, which works toward inclusion of Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities, applauded the regional jurisdictions. She cited their LGBTQ-affirming votes and their expansion of the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of bishops.

Jurisdictions elected the church’s first Native American and Filipino American bishops, with other landmark votes within specific regions, according to United Methodist News Service.

“It is a big tent church,” Lawrence said. “One of the concerns that some folks expressed is that we don’t have leadership in the church that reflects the diversity of the church. So, this episcopal election doesn’t fix that, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, elected in the Western Jurisdiction meeting, agreed. He is the first openly gay African American man to be elected bishop. The vote comes six years after the Western Jurisdiction elected the denomination’s first openly lesbian bishop, Karen Oliveto of the Mountain Sky Episcopal Area.

The LGBTQ-affirming resolutions point “to the alignment of the denomination more with the mainstream of our country,” Bridgeforth said. “It can also help us begin to center our conversations where we have unity of purpose, rather than centering on divisions.”

Bridgeforth will lead churches in the Greater Northwest Area, which includes churches in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and small parts of Montana and Canada. He said he has always worked across ideological lines in his administrative duties and would continue to do so.

“I have used our differences as an opportunity for us to come together,” he said. “It creates more space for a different kind of conversation than, ‘That’s different, that’s bad, we can’t be together.'” If some churches under his jurisdiction do choose to leave the United Methodist Church, Bridgeforth said he would help them make that transition.

“I would not want anybody to be where they don’t want to be,” he said.

Progressive groups have said the church should be open to appointing bishops and other clergy, regardless of sexual orientation, who show they have the gifts for ministry and a commitment to serve the church.

Conservatives, however, say the church needs to abide by its own rules.

“I am sure Bishop Bridgeforth is a person of sacred worth, but he does not meet the qualifications to hold the office of elder, much less bishop, and should not have been elected,” Therrell said.

At least 300 U.S. congregations have left the denomination this year, according to United Methodist News Service. Hundreds more are in the process of leaving, and Therrell predicted that number would be in the low thousands by the end of 2023. Overseas conferences in Bulgaria and Slovakia have ended their affiliation with the denomination, and churches in Africa are considering it, he said.

Many are bound for the newly formed conservative denomination, the Global Methodist Church.

The UMC is a worldwide denomination. American membership has declined to about 6.5 million, from a peak of 11 million in the 1960s. Overseas membership soared to match or exceed that of the U.S., fueled mostly by growth and mergers in Africa. Overseas delegates have historically allied with American conservatives to uphold the church’s stances on sexuality.

Support for a compromise measure that would have amicably split the denomination, negotiated in 2020, fell apart after that year’s legislative General Conference was postponed three times due to the pandemic. The next General Conference is now scheduled to begin in April 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A vote by a 2019 General Conference was the latest of several in recent decades that reinforced the church’s ban on gay clergy and marriage. But that vote also prompted many local conferences to elect more liberal and centrist delegates, whose influence was felt in this month’s regional votes.

Source: Voice of America

Since the withdrawal of the French army from Mali, Russia’s Wagner Group has replaced it as a target of jihadis propaganda, experts say, with extremists making hay with claims that its mercenaries have committed atrocities against civilians.

Having been pushed toward the exit by the leaders of Mali’s 2020 coup, France withdrew in August, more than nine years after its military intervened to stop a jihadi takeover of the troubled Sahel nation.

The colonels in charge in Bamako have been increasingly turning to Russia, and particularly to Wagner’s paramilitaries, according to Western sources.

Bamako denies this, acknowledging only the support of Russian military “instructors.”

But it is Wagner that the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nasr al‑Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM, has been targeting in the information war.

“Wagner’s operations are mainly located in central Mali and mainly target the Fulani community, of which JNIM presents itself as the protector,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at ACLED, which specializes in the collection of conflict-related data.

“There have been many clashes between the JNIM and the Malian armed forces and Wagner, who are operating jointly,” Nsaibia said. “In many ways Wagner has replaced France as the foreign force in the conflict, even if the jihadists don’t refer to Wagner as ‘crusaders’ like they did to the French, but as a ‘criminal militia’ of mercenaries.”

Wagner emerged in 2014 during the first war in Ukraine and is suspected by the West of doing the Kremlin’s dirty work in conflicts including Syria and the Central African Republic, a charge Russia has always denied.

‘Ethnic war’

JNIM boasts of having caught the “Malian army, Wagner’s mercenaries and pro-government militias in an ethnic war against Muslims” in an ambush in the central Bandiagara region late last month.

They also claim to have given Fulani herders back the animals that government forces had taken from them.

For years “jihadists groups have presented themselves as the defenders of local populations from the army and its proxies, which according to them, do nothing but kill civilians,” said Boubacar Haidara, a researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies.

The use of this “alibi to justify their violence” has been made easier by the “arrival of Russian elements,” he argued, at the same time as the “toll on civilians has become more and more deadly.”

While the majority of the 860 civilians killed in Mali in the first six months of the year were the victims of jihadis, about 344, or 40%, were killed in army operations, the United Nations said.

“The people judge by the atrocities committed on civilians,” said Binta Sidibe Gascon, of monitoring group Kisal, which stands up for Fulani communities. “Since Wagner arrived, and particularly after what happened in Moura, we are witnessing an exponential rise in the number of civilian victims.”

Massacre

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Malian soldiers of massacring about 300 civilians in Moura in March with the help of foreign fighters, who witnesses said were Russian. The Malian army denies those killed were civilian but rather more than 200 jihadis.

JNIM’s main leader in the region, the Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa, accused Wagner and the Malian army of the bloodbath in a rare video in June, claiming that only about 30 of his fighters were killed, while the rest of the dead were innocents.

“What is going to wake people up,” said Sidibe Gascon, is that despite “all these atrocities against civilians, no territory is being retaken and sadly the situation is getting worse, with more displaced people, schools closed and a humanitarian crisis.”

But Haidara said much of the Malian public “do not believe that civilians are being killed.”

“If the government was looking to Wagner for help in the information war, it can be happy with the results,” said Niagale Bagayoko, president of the African Security Sector Network. “In the capital and on social media they have won the opinion war against the West.”

Source: Voice of America

Suite à l’interdiction de commercialiser les jus de gingembre, la société Imena a retiré du marché son produit appelé Raha Tangawizi. Des commerçants rencontrés au marché de Cotebu, ce jeudi 10 novembre, confirment que les employés de ladite société faisaient une liste des cartons de jus récupérés mais ils restaient muets sur la date et la manière de remboursement. « J’ai peur de perdre mon capital », indique André Sibomana, un commerçant.

« J’ai retiré mes produits du marché pour les conserver dans mon usine parce qu’on estimait qu’ils ne remplissent pas les normes. Je les restituerai aux commerçants lorsque l’autorisation nous sera accordée », a réagi, Anicet Ndoricimpa, patron de la société Imena, avant de raccrocher.

Le porte-parole du ministère du Commerce et l’Industrialisation, Onésime Niyukuri, fait savoir que le ministère attend le rapport final du comité qui était chargé de retirer du marché des jus de gingembre. « Après cela, le ministère accueillera les doléances des commerçants ».

Source: IWACU Burundi

Le 1er Ministre Gervais Ndirakobuca continue sa visite dans les différentes provinces du pays. Jeudi 10 novembre 2022, il était en province de Karusi où il a été accueilli chaleureusement par la population avec des chants et danses traditionnelles.

Le Gouverneur de la province Karusi Dévote Nizigiyimana a indiqué au 1er Ministre dans son mot d’accueil, que la population de la province Karusi vit dans la paix et vaque normalement à ses travaux quotidiens. Néanmoins elle déplore le disfonctionnement du secteur judiciaire suite au manque de moyens de fonctionnement.

Dans son allocution, le 1er Ministre Gervais Ndirakobuca a félicité d’abord le Gouverneur de Karusi pour sa nomination à la tête de la province Karusi et lui a souhaité pleins succès dans ses nouvelles fonctions.

Dans cette rencontre avec les responsables des différents secteurs publics et privés, les leaders politiques et religieux, le 1er Ministre a fait savoir que l’objet de cette rencontre était de faire une auto-évaluation de l’étape déjà franchie dans le développement, 2 ans après la mise place des nouvelles institutions issues des élections générales de 2020.

Il était aussi question pour le 1er Ministre d’expliquer ce que signifie le gouvernement responsable et laborieux ainsi que ses missions qui sont entre autres l’amélioration du bien-être de la population sans discrimination, pour un développement durable et inclusif.

Les responsables et représentants de la population de la province Karusi ont eu l’occasion de soumettre leurs doléances et préoccupations au Premier Ministre.

Ils ont notamment fait savoir que la population de Karusi est confrontée à la flambée des prix des denrées alimentaires, à la rareté des pluies ainsi que la non disponibilité des produits Brarudi.

La population de la province de Karusi voudrait être dotée d’université publique.

La population de la province de Karusi demande également la réhabilitation des routes intercommunales qui sont en mauvais état et la vente des véhicules en panne se trouvant devant les bureaux de la province et que les fonds soient mis dans le trésor public.

Source: Radio Television of Burundi

Mise en place par trois femmes leaders natives de la province Gitega, la Clinique Wakize sise dans la ville de Gitega au Quartier Nyamugari a ouvert officiellement ses portes le 11 novembre 2022.

Les cérémonies étaient rehaussées par la présence de la Première Dame du pays Angéline Ndayishimiye qui a demandé à ces dames responsables de cette clinique, de rester unies et d’aller de l’avant pour en faire une clinique de référence dans la sous-région.

Les cérémonies étaient marquées par la coupure du ruban par la première en signe d’ouverture de cette clinique, la visite des différents services et la signature dans le livre d’or.

Dans son mot d’accueil, l’une des trois femmes responsable de la Clinique Wakize, Madame Vanessa Nshimira a indiqué que cette initiative est intervenues dans le cadre d’appuyer la politique de l’Etat dans le domaine de la santé. L’une des missions étant la facilitation de l’accès aux soins de santé pour tous.

De son côté, le Directeur Général de l’offre des soins et des accréditations, Oscar Ntihabose a recommandé aux responsables de cette clinique de toujours demander conseil aux responsables de la province sanitaire de Gitega.

Et de demander aux responsables du district sanitaire de Gitega de rester aux côtés de cette clinique pour leur donner des orientations susceptibles d’apporter du bien à la population.

Dans son allocution, la Première Dame Angéline Ndayishimiye a félicité le consortium des 3 femmes leaders qui ont mis en place cette Clinique qui ont joint l’acte à la parole. Elle les a exhortées à rester unies et leur a promis un soutien indéfectible.

Angéline Ndayishimiye a saisi cette occasion pour encourager ces trois femmes à aller de l’avant pour en faire une clinique de référence en renforçant le plateau technique de la structure sanitaire.

En guise d’encouragement, la Première Dame a promis à ces trois femmes 4 lits modernes qui serviront de déplacements aux mamans après l’accouchement.

Il sied de mentionner que cette clinique dispose de plusieurs services tels que : la consultation médicale, urgences médicales, le service de laboratoire, l’hospitalisation, le service de gynécologie, la pharmacie, les soins préventifs et promotionnels, la chirurgie et la pédiatrie.

Source: Radio Television of Burundi