Pope Francis Tough Message to Europe Regarding Africa

Pope Francis asked Europe to stop exploiting Africa and instead invest in ways that are beneficial to the continent.

In an interview with Reuters, the Pope urged Europe to share more mineral wealth equitably with Africans.

“We must invest in Africa, but invest in an orderly way and create employment, not go there to exploit it,” Pope Francis stated while discussing the migration of Africans to Europe.

“When a country grants independence to an African country it is from the ground up - but the subsoil is not independent. And then people (outside Africa) complain about hungry Africans coming here. There are injustices there,” he added.

[caption caption="Pope Francis"][/caption]

The interview released on World Refugee Day saw the Pope call on leaders of the world to exercise more tolerance with their nation's immigration policy.

The pope further urged Europe to focus on education and investment in Africa if it wanted to stem the flow of migrants, which is an increasingly divisive issue in Italy, where the new governing coalition is taking a hard line.

“And there’s a problem. We send people back to those who have sent them here. They end up in the jails of traffickers,” Pope Francis remarked.

Meanwhile, refugees living in Kenya asked the host nations to be accommodative and show compassion towards them in their stay even as they seek for a place to call home.

As Kenya joined the rest of the world in commemorating the World Refugee Day, refugees noted their lives to matter and they deserved to be treated with dignity.

The United Nations High Commissioner Representative in Kenya, Raouf Mazou lauded Kenya for hosting the largest number of refugees worldwide with 80,000 new refugees recorded per year since 2014.

All refugees in Kenya were assured of their protection by the Ministry of Interior through its Chief Administrative Secretary Patrick Ole Ntutu who graced the event held at the University of Nairobi as the chief guest on behalf of Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi.

[caption caption="A refugee camp in Kenya"][/caption]

A report released by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday, indicates that 68.5 million people were displaced from their country by the end of 2017.