“Do you hear the silence.” A poem Utrecht´s city poet Els van Stalborch wrote in response to the horrible, irrational violence that kills and injures innocent people. Out of the blue on a Monday morning in Utrecht, on a tram on the 24th of October Square. A square named for the date of the founding […]
A diocese needs a bishop. In the beginning of March, a new bishop was finally installed in Torit, South Sudan, after the city had been without one for five years. Five years in which a lot has happened. Let’s go back a bit in time. September 2017. The renewed violence in Juba, which broke out […]
Tuesday, March 19 Utrecht. Monday morning at 10:45 AM. The news comes in — a man has shot and killed three people on a tram here in Utrecht, just a few kilometers from PAX as the crow flies. The news travels fast – concerned friends from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria contact us straight away to […]
This week I speak to Sarah, an activist and a new acquaintance of PAX. Friday, March 8 The protests in Sudan have been going on for almost three months now. Women sometimes make up 70% of the protesters. Despite the recently declared state of emergency, the persistent violence of the regime and widespread sexual intimidation, […]
Wednesday, February 27 Bombs are once again falling on Saraqeb. But we aren’t going to talk about that today. There is also good news. Ahmed has become famous. The video clip ‘All Checkpoints’ that he and his friends made went online, and in a few days more than 20,000 people watched it. We’ve translated the […]
This week I spoke with Azaz, activist and friend of PAX End of February President Omar al-Bashir has declared a state of emergency throughout the country for the remainder of the year. In doing so, he fired his entire government and all regional governors. The cabinet ministers still have to be filled, but the new […]
This week I spoke to Wahid, an activist and friend of PAX. Monday 28 January On Thursday 24 January al-Bashir returned from a two-day visit to Qatar, where he undoubtedly held out his hand for some very necessary financial support. However, he had a rude awakening in store – on the day of his arrival […]
This week, I speak with Amar, an activist and friend of PAX. Amar often sends me pictures or short videos showing the protests. Now that people have been taking to the streets in large numbers for over a month, it seems like the security services are starting to get desperate. “Hi, Amar, how’s it going?” […]
The regime change in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can now be accepted as fact. Although protests did cost lives, compared to earlier power shifts this transfer of power took place in a more or less peaceful way. This is unprecedented in Congolese history. Also promising is that these elections came about due to […]
Wednesday, January 9 For the people in Idlib, the new year has gotten off to a bad start. The jjhadists of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have begun an offensive to take control of the last few cities and villages in Idlib Province they don´t already control. A few days ago they took over Atareb and […]