Kazeem Owoseni
The Bishop of Rome, who is the head of Roman Catholic, Pope Francis has warned the rich world to leave African continent alone and allow them to leave in peace.
Francis, who stated this in Kinshasa, the Capital City of the Republic of Congo on Tuesday, during his three days official trip as part of his tour to promote peace within the African continent, noted that the western world are the ones causing trouble and hatred across Africa, just to be in control of their natural resources.
He stated further that, the rich world had to to realise that people were more precious than the minerals in the earth, beneath them, noting that African continent has been subjected to poverty, oppression, ridicule, hunger and war, in the hand of the rich world.
While condemning “terrible forms of exploitation, unworthy of humanity” in Congo, where vast mineral wealth has fuelled war, displacement and hunger, the Pope warned the the western world to stay Clare of Africa and allow peace to reign within the continent.
In his words, “Hands Off the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hands Off Africa. Stop choking Africa; it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”
“It is a tragedy that these lands, and more generally, the whole of African continent, continue to endure various forms of exploitation.”
Congo, an African country that is endowed with some of the world’s richest deposits of gold, diamond, copper, Cobalt, tin, tantalum and lithium has been plagued by war between the military, government troops and foreign invaders since 1994 genocide in the neighbouring Rwanda and many people have lost their lives, some others are misplaced while some are left with hunger, depression, malnutrition and all forms of poverty.
The population in Congo is around 90 million, which Roman Catholic dominated almost half and the church plays very important role by providing good education, quality health care facilities and water supply.
The Pope will celebrate Mass at a Kinshasa airport and also meet with the victims of violence from the east on Wednesday and then proceed with his tour of Africa, to South Sudan on Friday.