"Hands off Africa! Stop suffocating Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited or land to be plundered». This is the appeal launched by Pope Francis, on a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"It is tragic - said the Holy Father from Kinshasa - that these places, and more generally the African continent, still suffer from various forms of exploitation. After the political one, an equally enslaving 'economic colonialism' was unleashed. Thus - added Bergoglio - this country, widely plundered, is unable to benefit sufficiently from its immense resources: it has come to the paradox that the fruits of its land make it 'foreign' to its inhabitants. The poison of greed has made its blood diamonds.'
The Pope, in his speech to the authorities in Kinshasa, also spoke of the "forgotten genocide that the Democratic Republic of Congo is undergoing". President Félix Tshisekedi had previously spoken of "terrorism at the service of foreigners" and had underlined that this takes place in the "silence of the international community".
(Unioneonline/lf)