Pope Leo XIV has sharply escalated his public criticism of world leaders over war spending, saying the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who pour billions into weapons while ignoring healing and education.
Speaking in the north-western Cameroonian city of Bamenda during his Africa tour, the first US-born pontiff condemned what he called “the masters of war” who “pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild.”
“Leaders turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found,” the Pope said on Thursday. He also denounced those who “rob your land of its resources” and invest the profits in weapons, sustaining “an endless cycle of destabilisation and death.”
The remarks come days after a rare public spat with US President Donald Trump, who called the Pope “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a Truth Social post after the pontiff criticised Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran did not end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. The Pope, who has called the Iran-Israel-US conflict “atrocious,” earlier told reporters in Algiers he had “no fear” of the administration and would keep speaking out against war.
Bamenda is the centre of an Anglophone separatist insurgency that has killed at least 6,000 people since 2017. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said she stood with the Pope in his “courageous call for a kingdom of peace.”
The Cameroon address is the second leg of a four-country Africa tour — Leo’s second major foreign trip since his election last year.
Source: Ada Derana.
