(AFP) – Pope Leo XIV spoke out against tyranny and “disasters” caused by the exploitation of natural resources on Saturday as he arrived in Angola for a visit to the oil-rich country with high levels of poverty. Leo flew in from Cameroon for the third leg of his tour of Africa, telling journalists on the plane that he regretted his 11-day trip had been overshadowed by a spat with US President Donald Trump.
In the capital Luanda, he travelled in his popemobile to meet President Joao Lourenco, with hundreds of cheering and waving people lining the route. Throughout his four-nation Africa visit, which started in Algeria on Monday, the pope has delivered pointed warnings against corruption, the plunder of the continent’s resources, and the dangers of artificial intelligence. In Luanda, he condemned the “social and environmental disasters” caused by rampant exploitation of resources. “How much suffering, how many deaths, how many social and environmental disasters are caused by this logic of exploitation,” he said in an address to officials including Lourenco.
Angola is one of Africa’s top producers of crude oil and is also rich in resources like diamonds, but inequality is stark as much of the wealth does not reach ordinary people. Around a third of the largely young population of 36.6 million people lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank. Speaking out against “despots and tyrants” who seek to subjugate people to their power, Leo also urged Angola to “not be afraid of dissent.” Authorities in the country, ruled by Lourenco’s socialist MPLA party since independence in 1975, have been accused of stifling freedom of expression including through heavy-handed responses to demonstrations. Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree during a strike against fuel hikes in July last year when around 30 people were killed in a police crackdown that was criticised by rights groups. Hundreds of people were jailed.
– Regrets Trump spat – On the plane from Cameroon, Leo told journalists that he regretted that remarks he had made during his tour had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump, insisting he had no interest in debating the US leader. He cited a speech about “tyrants” ransacking the world that he delivered in Cameroon on Thursday, saying that the remarks had been written well before Trump’s “comment on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting.” “And yet it was perceived as if I were trying to start a new debate with the president, which doesn’t interest me at all,” Leo said.
Leo had blasted “tyrants” while on a high-security visit to Cameroon’s northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicentre of a nearly decade-long English-speaking separatist insurgency that has killed thousands. The remarks were interpreted by the US media in particular as a reference to Trump, who said days before he was “not a big fan.” Trump’s criticism came after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
– Third papal visit – Leo is the third pontiff to visit Angola, where around 44 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, after John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009. “There is a lot of suffering, a lot of poverty in Angola. I hope the pope will see with his own eyes the needs of the youth here,” said Antonio Masaidi, a 33-year-old engineer.
On Sunday, Leo will celebrate a giant open-air mass in Kilamba on Luanda’s outskirts. In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to the village of Muxima, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Luanda, home to a 16th-century church that has become one of southern Africa’s most important pilgrimage sites. On April 20, he is due to travel more than 800 kilometres from the capital to visit a retirement home in Saurimo and celebrate another mass before departing the following morning for Equatorial Guinea.
– Clement Melki and Francois Ausseil
© 2024 AFP
