VANIMO, Papua New Guinea – Pope Francis traveled to the distant jungles of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to have a good time the Catholic Church within the outskirts, bringing with him loads of medicines, musical instruments and a message of affection for the individuals who live there.

Francis flew aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo on the northwest coast of the South Pacific state. There, Francis met with the local Catholic community and the Missionaries from his homeland Argentina who served them.

For an Argentine pope who marveled in 2013 at being chosen from “the end of the earth” to go the Church, it was a journey to the opposite side of the earth, the longest and furthest journey during Francis’ pontificate.

Francis has already traveled to the sting of the Arctic (to apologize to the Inuit for the Church's abuses), the Peruvian Amazon (to boost awareness of the plight) and the plains of Ur in Iraq (to strengthen Christian-Muslim relations). But even by his standards, Sunday's trip to distant Vanimo was extraordinary.

A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered singing and dancing on the sector in front of Vanimo Cathedral as Francis arrived, and he immediately placed on a feather headdress that had been given to him.

Speaking from an elevated platform, Francis praised church staff who strive to spread the religion, but urged Vanimo residents to work from home to be good to 1 one other as well, urging them to be like an orchestra so that every one members of the community can come together harmoniously and overcome rivalries.

In this manner, he said, one could “drive fear, superstition and magic out of the hearts of men and put an end to destructive behaviour such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse – evils that imprison so many of our brothers and sisters and rob them of their happiness.”

It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other conflicts which have long shaped the country's culture but have turn out to be increasingly deadly lately. Francis got here to Papua New Guinea to call for an end to violence, including gender-based violence, and to be sure that a way of civic responsibility prevails.

Francis began the day with a mass in front of an estimated 35,000 people on the stadium within the capital, Port Moresby. In his homily, Francis told those present that although they could feel distant from their faith and the institutional church, God is near them.

“You who live on this great island in the Pacific Ocean may have sometimes felt like a distant country, on the edge of the world,” Francis said. “But … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to overcome distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each of you is important to him.”

Francis was elected pope largely due to a speech he gave to his fellow cardinals in 2013 concerning the need for the Church to succeed in out to the “peripheries” where people need God most. True to this philosophy, Francis has largely avoided foreign travel to European capitals, as a substitute visiting distant communities where Catholics are sometimes a minority.

Vanimo, with its population of 11,000, is unquestionably distant. It lies near the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, where the jungle meets the ocean, and is usually only accessible by plane or boat.

There is a small airport but no ambulance lift, the wheelchair lift that Francis must get on and off planes. Because of this and the donated and purchased cargo that Francis brought in, the C-130 was used so he could get on and off the rear ramp.

Francis, the primary Latin American pope in history, also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to function a missionary in Japan, but poor health prevented him from doing so.

As Pope, he often portrayed missionaries as role models for the Church.

The person liable for inviting the Pope to Vanimo was Father Martin Prado, an Argentine missionary from the religious order “Institute of the Incarnate Word”.

While waiting for Francis' arrival on Sunday, he told reporters the “crazy” story of how he accompanied a gaggle of parishioners from Vanimo to Rome in 2019 and at last got an audience with the Pope after his parishioners insisted on giving him some gifts.

Prado, who has spent the last 10 of his 36 years of service as a missionary in Vanimo, said he wrote a note, left it for the pope on the Vatican hotel where he lives, and received an email the following day from Francis' secretary inviting his group.

“I invited him, but he wanted to come,” Prado said. “He has a big heart for people. These are not just words: he does what he says.”

Prado said that deep contained in the diocese, within the jungle where there are still no cars, some people need clothes and for them a plate of rice and tuna is “wonderful.”

Francis brought a cargo of a couple of ton of medicines, clothing, musical instruments and toys, the Vatican said. Prado said Francis was also helping to construct a brand new secondary school. He said half of the diocese's children cannot go to secondary school because there are simply not enough places for them.

The event had a really Argentinian feel: on the stage stood a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, the patron saint of Argentina, who is especially dear to Francis and whose name also adorns the local girls' school. When Francis met privately with the nuns and missionary priests after the event, they served him mate, the Argentinian tea.

Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guineathe second leg of his four-country tour through Southeast Asia and Oceania. After the primary stop in Indonesia, Francis travels to East Timor and ends his visit to Singapore later within the week.

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The Associated Press's coverage of faith receives support from the Cooperation with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content.

Originally published: September 8, 2024 at 3:04 pm

Sudan's ongoing humanitarian crisis after greater than a 12 months of civil war shows little sign of slowing downAnd amidst the fighting, a worrying development is emerging that might complicate the conflict and spread beyond Sudan’s borders: the Rise of “ethno-mercenaryism”.”

These are fortune hunters recruited on the idea of their ethnicity or economic reasons who come to Sudan from across Africa's Sahel region – the vast, semi-arid area of ​​the continent that separates the Sahara within the north from the more fertile tropical regions within the south.

The involvement of non-Sudanese Arab fighters within the Sudanese civil war has implications far beyond the country's borders and highlights broader sociopolitical and economic trends across the African continent. As a researcher who follows the developments that Political transitions within the countries along the Red SeaI’m convinced that understanding the complex dynamics that draw outside fighters into the Sudanese civil war is critical to understanding the larger geopolitical shifts that Shaping the region.

Migration, climate change and resource scarcity

The war between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023 after the support forces, which had until then been under the control of the armed forces, attacked government positions within the capital Khartoum. The war quickly escalated into bloody fighting across the country between the 2 rival groups.

It isn’t only an area problem, but increasingly a regional one. Fighters from Chad, Libya and Niger have joined the support forcessuggesting an internet of alliances that challenge traditional notions of national sovereignty and security.

This cross-border engagement underscores the interconnectedness of the Sahel region. And the fighters involved should not mere mercenaries – they’re participants in a deep-rooted, historically complex struggle for resources and power that pits the region's ethnic groups against one another.

The recruitment of foreign Arab fighters by the Rapid Support Forces – a bunch that emerged from the Janjaweed militia accountable for massacres throughout the Darfur region – is influenced by several aspects, including historical migration and economic pressures.

The legacy of Pan-Arabism and Arab supremacy ideologypropagated by personalities resembling the murdered Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, plays a job. It is linked to current issues resembling Climate change and resource scarcity to create a volatile environment during which traditional governance structures struggle to keep up order. Since the Nineteen Sixties, there have been Civil wars in Chad between tribal movements and in Sudan between Darfur's rebel groups and the central government in Khartoum.

However, understanding the rise of ethno-mercenaryism within the Sahel requires a comprehensive approach that takes into consideration the historical, socio-political and economic dimensions.

The Arabization of Sudan

In his ethnography “The Sanusi of Cyrenaica” from 1954, the British anthropologist Edward Evans-Pritchard captures the nomadic spirit of an Awlad Ali tribesman within the northern Sahel: “We don't call any place our home. It's wherever there is grass and water.”

Arab influence reached Niger and Western Sahara within the 14th century via trade routes, which led to intermarriage with local communities. In eastern Chad, Arabized communities have links to Sudan, where Arabization dates back to early Islam. In addition to the Rizeigat Baggara tribe Due to centuries-old land rights in Darfur, Arab nomads within the Sahel have been in constant motion since pre-colonial times.

Factors resembling land disputes and Desertification – the method by which fertile land becomes desert – were historically the Movement of Arab tribes across national bordersThese tribes, which migrated in the course of the pre-colonial era of France and Britain, have long-standing ties that transcend modern political boundaries, complicating the simplistic portrayal of an internal civil war.

And strict Droughts within the early Nineteen Eighties have exacerbated disputes over resources.

For example, declining rainfall and soil erosion in Darfur forced Arab groups to maneuver south, increasing competition with local farmers. Strong immigration from North Darfur and Chad to central agricultural areas contributed to the famine in 1983-84 which claimed hundreds of lives.

The Baggara Beltstretching from Sudan to Niger, also challenges colonial boundaries. Migration led to traditional institutions regulating land conflicts, but colonial and post-colonial laws often exacerbated conflicts by depriving nomadic tribes of their land rights. National post-colonial governments further fueled these conflicts by arming tribal militias, regardless that national armies were weak.

Postcolonial dynamics

The history of cross-regional ties between tribal groups crossing borders seeking resources provides the backdrop for today's situation in Sudan, where ethnic mercenaries are being drawn into the conflict.

But it isn’t only migration flows that complicate modern conflicts within the Sahel region, but in addition arms flows.

The influx of contemporary rifles from Libya to Darfur within the Seventies fueled the violence. In the meantime Conflict in Chad from 1978 to 1982 led to the collapse of the federal government and increased influx of weapons. In Darfur, weapons traded through business intermediaries, primarily the Zaghawa people, overwhelmed the Sudanese police. The Sudanese government armed Baggara Arabs to counter the SPLA rebel group within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, which led to tribal militias attacking neighboring regions.

This flow of arms disrupted peace, stability and traditional norms. Principle of “DiyaWhile “blood money” – paid to unintended victims or their families – was effective in curbing violence, modern weapons led to more killings, making blood money unaffordable. Nazirs, traditional tribal chiefs, lost control of Sudan's armed youth within the 2000s, resulting in an increase in violence.

Adding to the growing concerns concerning the region is a recent recent report documented how jihadists operating within the Sahel have begun to penetrate wealthier West African coastal states resembling Nigeria and Benin. In addition, the rise of the Rapid Support Forces and their attacks on the federal maximum security prisons in Khartoum have raised fears that Terrorists join their ranks within the war.

Addressing the regional unrest requires a nuanced understanding of those dynamics and coordinated efforts to advertise stability and development within the Sahel region.

The rise of ethnic mercenaries supporting the support forces threatens to further destabilise an already unstable region. While stopping cross-border ethnic recruitment is crucial, a comprehensive approach is required to handle the foundation causes of this dangerous phenomenon: climate change, arms flows and poor governance.

Palestinians in Gaza have begun receiving humanitarian assistance, delivered through a newly accomplished floating pier off the coast of the besieged area. The pier was built by the U.S. military and operated in coordination with the United Nations, aid organizations and other nations' militaries. Its origins date back to a mid-Twentieth century U.S. Navy officer who collected discarded cigar boxes to experiment with a brand new idea.

Among the artifacts from the military collections National Museum of American HistoryI stumbled upon these humble cigar boxes and the remarkable history they contain.

In 1939 John Noble Laycockthen commander of the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, was assigned as a war planning officer for the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks in Washington, D.C., to assist prepare for a possible war within the Pacific.

Laycock needed to determine methods to establish naval bases on undeveloped islands. The top priority could be what the military called “naval lightening,” the method by which cargo and supplies are moved by ships to a coast where there aren’t any ports or docks for docking.

That's it Problem facing the relief effort in Gaza – and a situation that military and humanitarian groups have faced countless times over the past century.

In his predecessors' office files, Laycock found plans developed within the Nineteen Thirties to make use of small pontoons – essentially floating boxes – that might be easily transported and quickly assembled by hand into larger barges or floating platforms. However, Laycock saw problems with the design of the plans and the way in which the pontoons were to be connected together. And he had an idea.

In my Research into his workI came upon that around July 1940, Laycock began visiting every concessionaire on the Navy headquarters, then positioned on the National Mall, and asking them to avoid wasting empty cigar boxes for him. Laycock and a helper lined up the boxes and distributed them evenly. Then they connected them with picket strips from children's kites, which they secured to the corners of the boxes with small nuts and bolts.

The easy model showed that it was possible to attach individual, evenly sized, small pontoon boxes right into a for much longer and far stronger floating beam. Multiple supports will be combined in the bottom to create a platform of any size needed. A sufficiently large platform could carry cargo, military trucks and armored vehicles weighing as much as 55 tons.

From cigar boxes to steel pontoons

In August 1940, while on a family vacation, Laycock discovered exactly methods to connect the person pontoons, which were manufactured from steel quite than wood or cardboard like his cigar box model. He designed steel fasteners – enlarged bolts and nuts called “jewels” that will be inserted and tightened by hand – that may withstand the stresses of the ocean's movement beneath a floating platform.

Through trial and error and applying various military requirements akin to the width of the steel plates, the burden of the empty pontoon, the depth required for floating and the load capability Laycock designed a straightforward pontoon 5 feet high, 7 feet long and 5 feet wide. He also designed a curved section to serve because the bow of a pontoon-based transport ship. By 1941, tests had proven that the design and system were ready for mass production.

Floating steel dams

Pontoon technology first entered the war within the South Pacific in February 1942, when the Naval Construction Force, also referred to as the Seabees, brought it to Bora Bora within the Society Islands. The Seabees were pleased with the way it worked, contributing to the system's nickname – Laycock's “Magic Box.”

The universal nature of pontoons made it possible to construct one Series of floating structures, including excavators, barges, floating cranes, workshops, warehouses and gas stations, tugs, piling rigs and dry docks. These pontoon structures might be found from Guadalcanal to the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and the Philippines.

Planning for the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 found one other use for Laycock's pontoon system. In late 1942, Royal Navy Captain Thomas A. Hussey realized that the Sicilian beaches had gentle slopes. During an invasion, landing craft, particularly those designed for tanks, will be expected to run aground several hundred feet above land in 6 feet of water. Even waterproof vehicles could be flooded and will sink.

Conscious of the Laycock pontoons, Hussey inquired whether the units could form a floating road, called a causeway, to bridge the gap between the ship and the shore. Laycock developed a way of constructing narrow causeways two pontoons wide and 30 pontoons long – about 175 feet. Arranging them side by side creates a floating dam 325 feet long. They could even be towed or carried by landing craft and deployed in shallow water upon arrival.

In mid-March 1943 the dams were successfully tested proved successful in Sicily. In 23, 24-hour days, the Seabees unloaded over 10,000 vehicles, including trucks, jeeps, halftracks, and towed artillery, onto the causeways. Senior American and British leaders said the landings couldn’t have happened so quickly Wouldn't there be the pontoon causeways?.

Pontoon highways in Normandy

Similar to Sicily, the coast of Normandy in France had beaches with gentle, flat slopes. Floating pontoon causeways were key to the D-Day landings by U.S., British and Canadian forces on June 6, 1944. Engineers would anchor one end of the dam to the shore and extend the structure far enough out to sea in order that cargo ships could dock at low or high tide without running aground.

Additional pontoons were added to the perimeters every few hundred feet along the causeway to form piers, allowing multiple ships to dock at the identical time no matter tidal conditions. They could unload directly onto dry pontoons, identical to at any normal pier or dock.

This system allowed for an enormous round the clock flow of tanks, trucks, artillery, supplies and personnel to support the fighting as Allied forces pushed inland through Normandy in the approaching months.

Use in war and for humanitarian aid

Over the many years, this idea evolved with technological advances in construction and fasteners Pontoon systems utilized in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. These have now also been improved and have helped to offer humanitarian aid, for instance in Haiti after a severe earthquake in 2010.

The Gaza pier includes each parts of the pontoon system – Laycock's original floating platform as Cargo hub 3 miles offshoreand the British-proposed floating causeway and pier system that might allow truck deliveries to achieve land. All from a humble cigar box concept model.