On Monday, September 15, four consecrated women of God—Sr. Lilian Kapongo, Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (MCST); Sr. Nerina, the Congregation’s Secretary; Sr. Damaris Matheka; and Sr. Stellamaris—lost their lives in a tragic road accident in Tanzania’s Catholic Archdiocese of Mwanza. Their driver, Boniphase Msonola, also perished, and another Sister remains in critical condition at Bugando Hospital.
These Sisters had just returned from a mission of joy, celebrating the perpetual profession of three of their members in Kahama Diocese. They were travelling back to Dar es Salaam when their vehicle collided with a truck in the Kaluluma-Bukumbi area. In an instant, lives dedicated to God and service to the poor were cut short.
We cannot view this tragedy as an isolated event. It is part of a wider, relentless pattern of carnage on Africa’s roads. The World Health Organization reports that 225,000 people died on African roads in 2021, representing 19 percent of the world’s traffic deaths, though Africa has only 3 percent of the world’s vehicles. Unlike other regions where road fatalities are falling, in Africa they have been rising by 17 percent over the past decade. In Tanzania alone, over 1,600 people lost their lives in 2023 due to road accidents. Behind every number is a face, a name, a story, a prayer silenced, and a treasure lost.
The causes are well-known: reckless speeding, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, distraction from mobile phones, inadequate vehicles on our roads, poor road conditions, potholes, missing signs, and weak enforcement of the law. These are not accidents in the truest sense—they are preventable deaths born of neglect, corruption, poor maintenance culture, bad government, and indifference.
Governments in Africa must not delay. They must invest in safer road networks, enforce speed limits consistently, install and maintain signage, carry out regular vehicle inspections, and ensure that overloaded, road-unworthy, or broken-down trucks and buses are removed from our highways. Road safety should not be an afterthought buried in policy documents; it must be a moral priority, for to safeguard life is the first duty of any government.
Yet, responsibility does not rest solely with the state. Every driver must see behind the wheel a sacred duty: to protect life. To drive drunk, to speed through villages, to text while driving, is to break not only civic law but also God’s commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” Every passenger, too, must demand safety, refuse overloaded vehicles, and hold drivers accountable for their actions. Every time someone takes the wheel, they must remember this truth: one careless decision can cost not only their own life, but the lives of many others.
Particularly, drivers of trucks, buses and heavy-duty vehicles must exercise caution and prudence on the road, where some of them adopt aggressive driving and road rage that often cause accidents and deaths.
Here, the Church also has a voice and a role. As pastors and communities of faith, we must educate our people about safe driving, sensitize parishioners to the value of life on the road, and integrate road safety into catechesis and social teaching. Our church drivers, our schools, our congregations must be examples of care and discipline. Bishops, priests, and religious must be unafraid to raise their voices and insist that governments act and that citizens drive with conscience. But we must also take time to teach our religious, priests, and pastoral agents how to drive. How many lives of young priests and nuns have been lost because they were inexperienced drivers who began driving after ordination or profession without proper driving lessons? Being a good driver does not come with ordination or pastoral authority; it comes with experience and a sense of patience.
The deaths of Sr. Lilian, Sr. Nerina, Sr. Damaris, Sr. Stellamaris, and their driver Boniphase, must not be swallowed by silence. We owe them more than grief—we owe them change. To the Missionary Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, to their families, and to the Archdiocese of Mwanza, we offer our deepest condolences. We stand in prayerful solidarity, and we pledge that their lives will not be remembered only in sorrow, but as a summons to protect every life on our roads.
Let us make their memory a turning point. Let us work together—governments, communities, churches, and citizens—to transform our roads from corridors of blood into paths of life. In honouring them, let us commit ourselves to a culture of care, discipline, and shared responsibility, so that no more sisters, no more priests, no more children or parents are lost needlessly to the preventable scourge of road accidents.
Likewise, in Nigeria, a young priest, Fr. Matthew Eya, was ambushed and killed on September 19, 2025, while returning to his parish after a pastoral assignment. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on his car, forced it to stop, and shot him several times at close range.
The police have since announced arrests and promised investigations. Still, the swiftness of the attack and the recurring violence against clergy and ordinary citizens alike send a chilling message about the value of human life in Nigeria.
Tragically, Fr. Matthew’s death risks joining the endless litany of horror stories that have become routine in the country. He is one among countless Nigerians who have fallen victim to a broken system of governance—a system that shields the elites but fails to safeguard ordinary citizens.
His death raises the haunting question once more: How long shall this continue?
May the eternal light of Christ shine upon them, and may their sacrifice awaken us to guard the gift of life more carefully on every journey, on every road in Africa.
