The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Today is Tuesday, July 18th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Mark Christopher and presented by Yamikani Katunga
Strife in Sudan
On April 15, 2023 fighting erupted in Sudan’s capital city of Khartoum. The fighting quickly spilled over into other regions of the troubled nation. After the overthrow of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in October 2021 there has been a power vacuum that has sparked growing tensions between the Sudanese Army and the rival para-military faction known as Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The carnage of Sudan’s war is beginning to mount and take its toll on the general population. There are the usual tragic reports of hunger, rape, disease, broken supply chains, and causalities with over 3000 deaths being recorded in the last few weeks alone. In recent days, there was a total communications blackout in Khartoum and the surrounding areas with residents forced to flee because of aerial bombings and tanks and soldiers fighting in the streets while rampant looting took place. It is estimated that 2.4 million Sudanese people have been displaced so far with refugees pouring into surrounding border countries like South Sudan, which has its own civil war uprising.
The millions of innocent bystanders certainly deserve our thoughts and prayers as the deleterious effects from the savagery of war take their toll producing compounded misery on so many. A quick glance at the website www.warsintheworld.com details a long list of hotspots worldwide and in the African continent. This should soberly remind us we live in a fallen world where the pernicious effects of our sin often result in wars and rumors of wars.
The sage of Ecclesiastes reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:8 that there is “A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.” And while there are occasions when a country must defend itself from the advances of another warring nation, the source of war is well detailed in James 4:1 “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” The personal quest for power, prestige, and riches is found at the heart of war. And so, we should pray for a time of peace in Sudan knowing that someday the Prince of Peace Himself will return and turn the implements of war into plowshares!
Climate Change Conundrum
At the end of June 2023, world governmental leaders and various financial power brokers met in Paris to discuss global monetary finance and climate change. The crux of the article details how these international elites are expediently using the issue of climate change to bring about a financial world order that will include a universal digital currency. If these globalists are successful it will result in every nation ceding its sovereignty to unelected officials and bureaucrats in far-flung places. To achieve the goal, they have to continue exaggerating the effects of climate change by blaming every weather-related event on man-made CO2.
As stewards of the creation God entrusted to us (Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15), humanity has a God-ordained responsibility to rule and subdue creation in a measured and wise way. This includes cleaning up our messes and using the resources God has given us responsibly and modestly. The creation ordinance also includes seeking God’s wisdom from above to examine what we are being told, so that we can exercise discernment. As Proverbs 18:17 reminds us, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another examines him.”
The truth is that climate is an extremely complex system with hundreds of variables, some of which offset the heating caused by CO2. Some of these climate variables are not known or are ever-changing. For this reason, the computer-generated climate models used to prognosticate future climate calamities are unable to account for all these variables which makes them unreliable.
While the issues surrounding climate change are complex, what is clear is that globalists are using this one issue to usher in a form of one-world control. It is all reminiscent of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 where God’s word and God’s wisdom are replaced with the collective wisdom of man. And while the continent of Africa can speak of colonialism in the past tense, I wonder how many African leaders understand there is a new form of colonialism the global elites seek to impose on the African continent. This new form of colonialism is called Eco-Colonialism. Thus, instead of humanity having dominion over creation, creation will now have dominion over humanity.
What Africa needs to address poverty, hunger, and economic growth is an abundance of cheap, affordable energy. Instead, those who met recently in Paris want to impose restrictions on reliable forms of energy like fossil fuels and nuclear energy with unreliable and intermittent renewable energy sources. And while there is a place for the use of some renewable energy, one must not ignore how acres of wind turbines and solar panels scar the landscape while harming floral and fauna life alike. And so, we should pray that God would grant our leaders some common sense and a measured approach where the issue of climate change is concerned. And while we shouldn’t diminish our God-given stewardship for creation and its management, let us not forget who is ultimately sovereign over His creation: “Thus you shall say to them, ‘The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding, He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from His storehouses” (Jeremiah 10:11-13).
(For a more detailed explanation of the biblical worldview on the environment and climate change please see the aforementioned seminar)
And that’s it for The Africa Review in Five on this Tuesday, July 18th in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe to the Missionary Minds podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I’m Yamikani Katunga. Be not weary in well-doing.