Pope Leo XIV has criticised foreigners who exploit the wealth of Africa for profit during his visit to a conflict-hit region of Cameroon.
It is one of several forthright remarks he has made over the last day, including blasting those who spend billions on wars and telling Cameroon’s government to root out corruption for peace to prevail.
He has spent the day in Bamenda, a city at the centre of Cameroon’s brutal and long-running separatist rebellion.
Internal problems were exacerbated by outsiders who “in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it”, he told an estimated 20,000 worshippers at a Mass at Bamenda Airport.
Earlier, joyful crowds sang, drummed and waved flags to welcome the leader of the Catholic Church, who arrived under military escort in a bullet-proof white vehicle.
Ahead of his visit, Anglophone separatists had announced a period of “safe travel passage”.
The Pope’s first stop was at a peace meeting in Bamenda held at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral about the nearly 10-year insurgency in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions that has left at least 6,000 people dead and many more forced from their homes.
“Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilisation and death,” said the 70-year-old Pope.
Since 2017, those seeking to create a breakaway state in Cameroon’s Anglophone region have been fighting government forces.
They are angered by what they see as the marginalisation of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority by the Francophone-dominated government.
Religious leaders and victims of the Anglophone conflict took turns to share the impact of the fighting with the Pope.
A Muslim leader decried the killing of members of the Mbororo indigenous community, looting of cattle and other items.
A nun revealed details of her kidnap by separatist fighters, highlighting the severity of the conflict.
Another man shared how he was forced to flee his home.
The Pope commended their work and said it was a model for the whole world: “Let us thank God that this crisis has not degenerated into a religious war.”
Commentators say the Pope has been unusually blunt in his speeches in Cameroon.
On Wednesday at the presidential palace in the capital, Yaoundé, he gave pointed advice to the government during at address also attended by President Paul Biya.
“In order for peace and justice to prevail, the chains of corruption – which disfigure authority and strip it of its credibility – must be broken,” he said. (BBC)
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