Pope Leo speaks out against exploitation of Africa’s resources

Pope Leo XIV, who is on a four-nation African tour, condemned the exploitation of the continent’s resources and warned that the practice was a recipe for discontent and upheaval.

“Too often your lands have been looked at in order to give, or more frequently, to take something. It is necessary to break this chain of interests that reduces reality and life itself to a mere commodity,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church said in a speech in Luanda, Angola’s capital, on Saturday. “This extractive logic brings suffering, death and social and environmental disasters in every part of the world.”

The Pontiff called for a “fair model of coexistence, free from the forms of enslavement imposed by elites with great wealth and false joys.”

Pope Leo kicked off his tour in Algeria, where he met President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and spoke of the need for peace and forgiveness. Prior to visiting Angola, Africa’s third-biggest oil producer, he went to Cameroon, where he called for dialog and reconciliation between separatists in the nation’s Anglophone regions and the government. His visit will conclude next week in Equatorial Guinea.

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