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In a communiqué released 11 January, the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon condemned forcefully and unequivocally all those who perpetrate violence in the nation. “Violence will never win, but justice and peace will,” reads the text. “The prevalence of these gruesome and inhuman acts on Cameroonians indicates that this cycle of violence is in no way near the end.”

World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca sent a congratulatory message to Bernard Munono Muyembe for receiving the John Paul II International Prize.

In a pastoral letter to “sisters and brothers in Ethiopia,” eight faith-based organizations expressed Christian love and care, as well as a commitment to accompany churches and people of Ethiopia as they face the challenges confronting their country.

Online training for church leaders in Zimbabwe is helping them find creative, positive theologies to navigate the many challenging facets of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a solidarity visit to South Sudan, a delegation from the All Africa Conference of Churches urged all parties in South Sudan to pursue peace even amid challenges.

After a two-day workshop in Buea, religious leaders from Cameroon issued a statement saying "that the cost and consequences of the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon and the Boko Haram insurgence in the North are becoming increasingly unbearable on the local populations who are paying a high price for these conflicts."

Damaris, a Nigerian woman, described her experience of 2020: “We’ve gone through hell.”

Damaris and her sisters were kidnapped in March 2020 and threatened with death as their kidnappers demanded money. Her father had to sell everything and beg on the streets to meet their demands. “We are just a common people in Nigeria,” she said. “We don’t know what we did.”

A webinar hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 26 November will explore “Conflict Zones and Covid-19: A call to compassion.” Speakers from Cameroon, Nigeria, South Sudan, Lebanon, Belarus and Colombia will offer their insights on how conflict exacerbates the conditions for contracting and treating COVID-19 among civilians caught in the crossfire, especially women.

The WCC executive committee released a statement lifting up in prayer the people and churches of Ethiopia.

“The unbearable toll of lives lost, and the impact on the affected communities and nations, must engage the concern, solidarity and action of the international community and all people of goodwill, to stem the bloodshed and to confront the brutal ideologies behind such atrocities,” wrote Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), on 3 November, as he commented on the violent extremist attacks in western Ethiopia, Kabul and Vienna.

South Sudanese Church leaders are appealing for urgent humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of their population, who have been left vulnerable by a mix of five crises, including floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.