News Plus: Pope urges world to help Cameroon

Submitted on March 12, 2009

Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called on the world community to help Cameroon break its "vicious circle of underdevelopment and extreme poverty." He also denounced the world’s arms traffickers, urging them to reflect upon the consequences the lucrative industry had on the lives of innocent people. The pope made his comments in an audience last year with Cameroon’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Antoine Zanga. Cameroon’s government, like that of all nations, must seek to ensure social and economic stability for its citizens, the pope said. He urged authorities to invest in small projects that promote local entrepreneurship and fight more effectively against illegal weapons trafficking and corruption. But while the people of Cameroon must commit themselves to working for the common good, the pope said the international community also should guarantee economic policies that could "contribute to breaking the vicious circle of underdevelopment and extreme poverty" in Cameroon. He said he hoped measures would be taken to reduce or cancel the African nation’s debt and to bring about "a more equitable allocation" of the nation’s natural resources to revive its economy and give young people hope for the future. The pope launched an appeal "to all people involved in the sale or trafficking of weapons, which often (involves) very lucrative stakes, to ask themselves what their conduct breeds." Armed conflict was often the reason a growing number of refugees fled to Cameroon, he said.