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Pope Denounces Resources ‘Greed’ In Africa

by | Thu, Feb 2 2023

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Pope Francis has denounced what he calls the “poison of greed” that’s the driving force behind conflicts in Africa.

He was speaking to dignitaries at the start of his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has Africa’s largest Catholic community .

Reuters reports the 86-year-old condemned “terrible forms of exploitation that are unworthy of humanity” in the nation where vast mineral wealth has fueled war, displacement and hunger.

The pontiff said Africa was not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.

He stated that the rich world had to realise that people were more precious than the minerals in the earth beneath them.

The news agency reports the DRC has some of the world’s richest deposits of diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, tin, tantalum and lithium, but those “have stoked conflict between militias, government troops and foreign invaders.”

Reuters adds that mining has also been linked to inhumane exploitation of workers, including children, and environmental degradation.

“The poison of greed has smeared its diamonds with blood,” Pope Francis said, referring to the DRC specifically.

Tens of thousands of people lined the road and cheered as the pontiff travelled from the airport into the capital Kinshasa in his popemobile to commence his six-day African tour.