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“I’ve arrived Rome safely but I soorow for my flock in Iran,” Catholic Bishop cries
Belgian Cardinal Dominique Mathieu of Tehran-Isfahan surfaced in Rome after days of uncertainty about his whereabouts following the start of a U.S. and Israel-Iran war.
In a brief statement sent to the Belgian Catholic news site, Cathobel, Mathieu said he arrived in Rome March 8 “not without regret and sorrow for our brothers and sisters in Iran.”
His departure from Iran, he said, was “part of the complete evacuation of the Italian Embassy, which serves as the seat of the archdiocese.”
“While waiting to return, pray for the conversion of hearts to inner peace,” he wrote.
Before his statement, Mathieu’s whereabouts were unknown after the U.S.-Israeli-led campaign started Feb. 28. OSV News had reached out to the cardinal several times but had received no response since the start of the war.
Tehran’s Cathedral of the Consolata, as well as the cardinal’s residence and administrative offices, are located on the grounds of the Italian Embassy.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced March 5 that the country’s embassy in Iran would be temporarily closed.
“A group of about 50 Italian nationals led by our ambassador to Iran has crossed the border into Azerbaijan,” Tajani said, adding that embassy staff will continue to operate in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
“We are keeping diplomatic relations with Tehran open, in order to protect the Italians there and our national interests,” he wrote on X.
It is unknown whether the cardinal traveled with the group before his arrival in Rome, and OSV News is awaiting a response from both the Italian Foreign Ministry and the Franciscan General Curia in Rome regarding the circumstances of Mathieu’s return.
According to Cathobel, Mathieu is expected to meet with Vatican officials to brief them on the situation in Iran. OSV News reached out to the Vatican press office to confirm if the cardinal is expected to meet with officials, as well as with Pope Leo XIV. By publication time, the Vatican had not responded.
The war in Iran began Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and weakening the country’s leadership, which they accuse of threatening Israel and destabilizing the region.
The U.S. and Israel gave similar reasons for their joint attacks on Iran in 2025.
In an interview with OSV News in July, following the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Mathieu said the rise of populist nationalism had led to “more barriers and increased armament, justified by fears of actual or potential attacks.”
“This leads to a climate where pre-emptive or preventive aggression is justified, and the notion of the other as a brother or sister to love diminishes,” he said. “Negotiations are often based on power balances rather than sincere dialogue and mutual understanding.”
“It is troubling to hear the idea of ‘obtaining peace by force,’ where violence becomes the only means of addressing conflicts,” Mathieu told OSV News in July.
With the war now in its second week, the U.S. and Israel continued strikes against Iran, as well as in southern Lebanon, where a Maronite Catholic priest was killed March 9 by Israeli artillery fire.
The killing of Fr. Pierre al-Rahi prompted a statement from the Vatican press office expressing Leo’s “profound sorrow” for victims of the Middle East, including the Maronite priest and “the many innocent people, including many children, and for those who were providing them with aid.”
This story appears in the War in Iran feature series. View the full series.
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By Bonaventure Phillips Melah
Arewa Mandate for Unity and National Rebirth (AMUNR), has criticized former vice president, Atiku Abubakar for his recent attack on former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, had on Wednesday described Jonathan’s presidency as a ‘product of inexperience, among other unsavoury remarks.
But reacting to the development on Thursday, AMUNR, through a statement signed by Danladi Luka Ishiaku and Basiru Usman Wakili, National Coordinator and National Secretary respectively, urged Atiku to pursue his presidential ambition without looking for who to blame for his years of political misfortune.
AMUNR said contrary to Atiku’s wrong narrative, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan served Nigeria for 16 uninterrupted years from deputy governor to governor, vice president to acting president and president of the country for five years, adding that he was much more prepared to serve Nigeria at the highest level, with achievements that are yet to be equalled by any Nigerian leader in history.
The group said Atiku has failed to achieve his presidential ambition, partly due to what it described as desperation and impatience which it said was responsible for his movement from PDP to three different parties and back to PDP and now to ADC, saying Atiku would have served as president under the PDP of he had allowed Jonathan to complete his terms without disrupting the system.
It therefore advised the former vice president to blame himself and not Jonathan for his political woes.
AMUNR said- “Our attention has been drawn to the now familiar comments by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has chosen to substitute revisionism for reality by branding Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency as a product of “inexperience.” This claim is not just wrong; it is mischievous.
“Dr. Jonathan rose through every constitutional rung of leadership—Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice-President, and Acting President during the national uncertainty that followed the illness of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. To dismiss that trajectory as “inexperience” is either a willful distortion of facts or a troubling misunderstanding of governance itself.
“But perhaps the more pressing question is this: from what vantage point is this judgment being made?
“Here is a man who has spent decades in perpetual pursuit of the presidency contesting, recalibrating, and returning, yet has never once borne the full weight of that office. It is, therefore, remarkable that someone whose “experience” is defined largely by ambition now seeks to diminish the record of someone whose experience was tested in office, under pressure, and in history’s full glare.
“Under Dr. Jonathan, Nigeria did not drift, it advanced. The economy was rebased, emerging as Africa’s largest. The power sector was unbundled after years of entrenched dysfunction. Agricultural corruption networks were dismantled. Rail and road infrastructure, long abandoned, were revived. These are not opinions; they are verifiable milestones.
“And then came the defining moment: when faced with the choice between personal power and national peace, Dr. Jonathan chose Nigeria. His peaceful concession in 2015 remains one of the most consequential acts of democratic leadership on the continent, an act that secured stability and earned global respect.
“That is what real leadership looks like.
“To now hear that legacy casually reduced to “inexperience” is not merely ironic, it is an attempt to gaslight a nation that lived through, and benefited from, those years.
“Nigerians remember. They remember results. They remember restraint. And they certainly remember who governed, and who merely aspired to.
“If experience is the argument, then the distinction is clear: one man has a record that can be scrutinized; the other has a résumé of repeated attempts.
“Dr. Jonathan’s legacy is not up for casual dismissal. It is written in policy, in progress, and in the democratic stability Nigeria still enjoys today.
“No amount of political revisionism can undo that record,” AMUNR concluded.
The Federal Government, on Wednesday, withdrew the terrorism financing charge it filed against the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, and his son, Abdulaziz.
The FG, through its team of lawyers led by Mr. Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, applied to substitute the charge with an amended one concerning the defendants’ alleged illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
It told the court that the arms and live cartridges were found in Malami’s residence in Birnin Kebbi.
Following the development, Malami — who served as Justice Minister from November 11, 2015, to May 29, 2023, under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration — and his son took fresh pleas of not guilty to the five-count amended charge.
The defence lawyer, Mr. Shuaibu Arua, SAN, who did not oppose the withdrawal and substitution of the initial charge, persuaded the court, however, to allow the defendants to retain the bail that was initially granted to them.
The application for the defendant’s bail was not challenged by prosecution counsel.
Consequently, trial Justice Joyce Abdulmalik held that the bail the court granted the defendants on February 27, as well as all the conditions already fulfilled, would subsist.
The court subsequently fixed May 26 and June 15 for trial.
Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has warned residents against aiding, harbouring, or providing logistical support to Boko Haram insurgents.
The warning follows recent operations conducted by the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai in the Jilli general area of Gubio Local Government Area on April 11, 2026.
Jilli, a border community between Gubio Local Government Area of Borno State and Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State, was reportedly affected during the operation.
In a statement by the Governor’s Special Adviser on Media, Dauda Iliya, Governor Zulum described Jilli market as a notorious hub allegedly used by insurgents and their logistics suppliers.
“I have been properly briefed on the airstrike carried out by the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai on Jilli market, a border town between Borno and Yobe states. Let me state categorically that the Borno State Government closed Jilli and Gazabure markets five years ago,” the Governor stated.
He added that he is in close consultation with the Yobe State Government and the military hierarchy on the matter.
Governor Zulum explained that the state government maintains close coordination with the military and other security agencies before resettling any community or reopening markets, particularly in areas affected by insurgency.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to protecting law-abiding citizens and sustaining collaboration with security agencies to restore lasting peace and stability.
The Governor also urged residents to remain vigilant and support security agencies with credible information to aid ongoing military operations.
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