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CARITAS/ALL AFRICA CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES (AACC)
August 29, 2006
NEWS REPORT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Somalis plan to stage a walk from Mogadishu to \Nairobi By Mitch Odero
NAIROBI: Somalis are planning to walk for some 1,500 kilometres from Mogadishu to Nairobi to attend the World Social Forum in in January next year. Delegates to the Ecumenical Consultation towards the World Social Forum (WSF) were told today in Nairobi.
The WSF coordinator for Kenya Mr Onyango Oloo pointed out that the decision by Somalis was a demonstration of a building up of the African enthusiasm regarding WSF which will be held for the first time in Africa.
The meeting jointly hosted by AACC and Caritas Africa was also told that some 130,000 former and present child-soldiers in Africa could form networks of "African home-grown mafia gangsters "if the continent fails to ensure effective healing and rehabilitation.
Opening the meeting at AACC conference centre Bishop Pie Ntukamazina, the Anglican Bishop of Bujumbura, Burundi pointed out that the crisis facing the youth in Africa included the existence of an estimated 80 million child labourers.
The three day meeting is attended by heads of churches in Africa and church-related agencies called to strategize on their effective presence at the WSF. Also present at the meeting is a delegation from Brazil where the first WSF meeting was held six years ago.
The Chairman of WSF's Content and Methodology Commission Prof Edward Oyugi expressed the hope that the WSF would encourage Africans to formulate an African agenda that would liberate the continent from the yokes of neo-liberalism and inform its future international relations and development policies
Referring to economic globalization, Prof. Oyugi who is also a member of WSF International Council pointed out that the concept of global village is misleading, ''what it means is that the world is a village for the powerful to roam in and a big jungle for the poor."
ENDS
For further information contact:-
Mitch Odero
Media Liaison Tel 0734564045