AFRICA/ANGOLA - A request from the Bishops of Angola for a greater attention to the poor in a very rich country

Luanda (Agenzia Fides) – “An observation post on poverty in Angola needs to be created so as to monitor the struggling polices to fight poverty, to verify the results of these policies and their effective impact on the lives of the citizens”. This is the proposal launched by His Excellency, Msgr. Filomeno Vieira Dias, Bishop of Cabinda and responsible for Social Communications in the Angolan Episcopal Conference.
According to the newspaper “O Apostalado” the Archbishop of Malanje, His Excellency, Msgr. Luis Maria Perez de Onraita Aguirre, observed that the fight against poverty remains a challenge for the country. The Archbishop, in a meeting with the politicians responsible for the area of Malanje, underlined that while the capital, Luanda, is in full development, the rural areas of Angola are left without resources. They lack investments for the infrastructure of roads, schools and hospitals.
Angola is one of the principal producers of crude oil in Africa, besides having a lot of other resources. It is, then, a very rich country but the wealth is badly distributed. Besides, the exploitation of crude oil is the cause of great ecological damage as Msgr. Vieira Dias denounced. The Bishop of Cabinda expressed preoccupation for the sea fauna, damaged by the flow of oil from the offshore oilwells, and for the destruction of trees in the forest of Mayombe defined by him as “a lung, a supermarket and a pharmacy for the local population”. (L.M.)(Agenzia Fides 16/5/2012)