Pope Francis is in Morocco as part of his ongoing effort to advance inter-religious dialogue.  It is the first visit by a pope to the predominantly Muslim country in 34 years. Just last month the pope visited the predominantly Muslim United Arab Emirates.

Pope John Paul II was the last head of the Catholic Church to visit Morocco in August 1985. Moroccans are seeing the current visit in a positive way and the message that Pope Francis has for them is that Muslims and Christians can peacefully co-exist.

Ahead of the two-day visit, Pope Francis issued a video message for the Moroccan people. He thanked King Mohammed VI for inviting him and Moroccan authorities for their collaboration in making this visit possible.

Francis said that, following in the footsteps of his holy predecessor, John Paul II, he is coming as a pilgrim of peace and brotherhood, in a world that greatly needs it. Francis added that both Christians and Muslims believe in God “who created men and women, and placed them in the world so that they might live as brothers and sisters, respecting each other’s diversity and helping each other in their needs.”

Morocco’s population is almost all Muslim, with the local Catholic community consisting of some 23,000 faithful. The majority of them are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The pope will spend only 27 hours in Morocco but he has a busy schedule. On his first day in Rabat, the pope focuses on inter-faith dialogue and on solidarity with migrants.

He will be visiting the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of imams in what is expected to be a significant moment of his visit. It is the first time a pope is welcomed in a school for imams. This is part of the Moroccan king’s effort against fundamentalism while promoting a moderate approach to Islam.

On Saturday, Pope Francis also will be meeting with migrants at a center run by the Catholic charity Caritas. There are some 50,000 migrants in Morocco and about 4,000 are looked after by Caritas. The issue of migrants is an important one, as Morocco’s proximity to Spain has led many migrants to travel this route to enter Europe.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will visit the Center for Social Services at Temara, just south of Rabat, which used to be a rural school run by Jesuits and is now an important care center for children. The pope will then hold a meeting with religious men and women in Rabat cathedral and lunch with the country’s bishops.

Before returning to the Vatican, Pope Francis will celebrate mass at the city’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium. The mass is expected to be attended by at least half the Catholic population in the country.

 
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African migrants who hijacked an oil tanker after it rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea seized metal objects and began smashing the ship and threatening crew members after they realized they were being returned to Libya, the ship’s captain said Friday.

Nader el-Hiblu, the 42-year-old Libyan captain of the El Hiblu 1 ship, said he and five other crew members feared they could be killed during the “horror” that played out at sea this week. He said the threats by rioting migrants forced him to agree to their demand that he take them to Europe, not back to Libya.

“They attacked the cockpit, heavily beating on the doors and the windows and they threatened to smash the boat,” el-Hiblu said in an exclusive account given Friday to The Associated Press. He spoke by phone from the ship, which is now docked in Valletta, the capital of Malta.

“They went nuts and they were screaming and shouting ‘Go back! Go back! Go back!’” he said.

​Death and desperation

For years, the Mediterranean Sea has been a place of drama and death as desperate people from Africa and the Middle East board unseaworthy smuggling boats with dreams of a better life in Europe. Last year, 2,299 people died in the sea trying to head to Europe. The dangerous journey has killed 311 people so far this year.

The migrants revolted against heading back to lawless Libya, where aid groups say migrants are beaten, raped and tortured on a regular basis in detention camps. Some aid groups called the migrants’ actions “self-defense” against Europe’s inhumane migration policies.

Now, there are fears that some merchant ship captains might become reluctant to save migrants from sinking boats if they fear they could lose control of their ships.

Rescue becomes hijacking

El-Hiblu said the drama began Tuesday afternoon when his tanker was traveling from Istanbul to Libya. He was contacted by a military aircraft flying above — though he isn’t sure if it was Maltese or Italian — alerting him of a boat with people who needed help.

He then approached the boat, which he said was carrying 98 men, women and children.

“I took the people in the boat and there were six who refused to jump in, fearing that I take them back to Libya,” he said. “They refused to come with me and they fled while the plane was going after them.”

The aircraft then contacted him with a second location and he went there, but lost contact with the plane and the boats, he said.

He then directed his ship to Libya, saying the migrants believed they were headed to Europe and “were relaxed and happy and did nothing throughout the journey.”

​Call for help ignored

At 6 a.m. Wednesday, el-Hiblu alerted Libyan port authorities that he was nearing the coast and requested assistance from coast guard or naval forces, aware that the migrants would become upset at realizing they were returning to Libya.

But help didn’t come. When the Libyan capital of Tripoli came into view, about 25 of the male migrants began their attack, he said.

“They all brought heavy metal tools and started to beat and smash the ship and threatened that they would leave the ship in pieces” if the vessel continued to Libya, he said. “It was horror. I didn’t care much about the boat, but the crew members.”

El-Hiblu called the port in Libya again and told them the crew was heading north toward Europe, saying: “they are going to kill me and kill us if we return. We are leaving.”

Libyan Coast Guard Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ayoub Gassim said when the Libyan coast guard learned about the hijacking, they sent two boats in “hot pursuit” over a distance of 60 nautical miles (110 kilometers), but said the tanker was faster than their boats.

El-Hiblu insists, however, that the Libyan coast guard could have reached his tanker had authorities wanted to.

Italy rejects migrants

As the tanker moved north, news started spreading it was heading either toward Malta or the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has a strong anti-migrant stance, said Italy would not accept them.

At first, Malta also insisted it would not accept the vessel in its waters.

But Thursday morning, the Maltese armed forces stormed the vessel and detained five men suspected of leading the hijacking, taking them away in handcuffs when the ship docked in Valletta, the capital.

El-Hiblu was incensed, however, at his treatment by a Maltese security officer, who ordered him to take off his clothes for a body search and confiscated his phone. He said he was detained for a couple of hours in a cell in a police station near the port, under suspicions of being a human trafficker.

“This filthy country treated me in a very disrespectable way after rescuing 98 people. They dealt with me as a criminal and accused me of illegal migration,” he said angrily.

Maltese officials would not comment on the tanker hijacking case as they carried out an investigation. It was also impossible to speak to any of the migrants who had been on the ship to hear their side of the story.
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Burundi will continue to block broadcasts from two international media organizations and expand restrictions on their operations, the government announced Friday.

At a meeting in Bujumbura, the president of the National Council of Communication, Nestor Bankumukunzi, said the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America are no longer allowed to broadcast, effective immediately. The ban is indefinite and extends to journalists, both foreign and domestic, who provide information to either broadcaster.

“We are alarmed that reporters in Burundi are now forbidden to communicate with VOA and believe these continuing threats to our journalists undermine press freedom in the country,” VOA Director Amanda Bennett said. “We stand with the people of Burundi against those who are restricting their access to accurate and reliable news and information.”

The BBC condemned the decision, calling it “a serious blow against media freedom.” 

Last May, the Burundi government suspended both news organizations for six months, a week before holding a referendum on a new constitution. The outlets have been off the air since.

Rachel Nicholson, a researcher for Amnesty International, said Burundi’s government is angry at the broadcasters for different reasons.

The government was upset by a documentary the BBC broadcast last year, she said, about members of Burundi’s intelligence service operating secret sites where dissidents are detained and tortured.

Burundi has accused VOA of employing a journalist who opposes the government, Nicholson added. Patrick Nduwimana, the former director of Bonesha FM Radio in Burundi, is “wanted for participating in deadly violence that preceded the May attempted coup,” the National Council of Communications wrote in Friday’s statement.

“I think it’s really worrying to see the government personalize attacks on radio stations. They have such an important role to play, particularly BBC and VOA, particularly in the absence of independent Burundian radio stations operating from within the country,” Amnesty’s Nicholson said. “The BBC and VOA have such an important role to play in sharing information with people in Burundi.”

In a phone interview with VOA, Willy Nyamitwe, senior adviser to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza, said the news organizations were banned for spreading falsehoods.

“Some international media are biased. Everybody knows some reports were fake reports, fake news,” Nyamitwe said. “So if people cannot even try to speak the truth, but if some people are using some media outlets only to spread lies, what other comments do I have to do?”

Nyamitwe also said that Burundi has an open media landscape and that all countries have the right to ban news organizations that spread lies. “There are thousands of journalists in the country. There are tens of media houses, radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, media online.

“So I think people are exaggerating thinking that there’s no media houses in the country,” he said. “I do know that even in the United States there are some media houses that have been called biased or fake news media houses.”

In its 2018 press freedom report, Reporters Without Borders ranked Burundi 159th out of 180 countries worldwide. It said security forces routinely harass journalists and pointed to the unsolved 2016 disappearance of journalist Jean Bigirimana as evidence of intimidation and violence against reporters.
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Officials in cyclone-stricken Mozambique say the number of cases of cholera has skyrocketed from five on Wednesday to 139 by late Thursday. 

Cholera is a bacterial disease spread by contaminated food or drinking water. It causes severe diarrhea and subsequent dehydration, and can kill within hours if not treated.

Squalid living conditions  — contaminated water and lack of sanitation — in the country following the cyclone are the perfect breeding grounds for the spread of the disease. 

The World Health Organization said earlier this week that it was sending 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine to the region. 

AFP,  the French news agency, reported that a cholera prevention publicity campaign had been mounted via radio and loudspeakers throughout affected towns and villages. 

UNICEF has warned there is “very little time to prevent the spread of opportunistic diseases.” 

Cyclone Idai struck most of Mozambique nearly two weeks ago with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains. It also hit eastern Zimbabwe and Malawi.
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