Hands off Africa

POPE FRANCIS condemned ‘economic colonialism’ in a message directed towards western and European powers in a speech given in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday, January 31.

In the speech, given in Italian at the capital, Kinshasa’s presidential palace, the Pope said that “terrible forms of exploitation, unworthy of humanity” are responsible for the ongoing conflict in the country.

The Pope added, “Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered”.

Natural resource wealth has led to decades of economic and political turmoil after the Democratic Republic of the Congo won its independence from Belgium in 1960. In the country of 100 million people, it is estimated that 26 million face severe hunger problems.

The Pontiff is in the central African country for the first visit by a leader of the Catholic church since Pope John Paul II’s visit to Zaire as it was formerly known in 1985.