AFRICA - Youth Lives Matter: religious and political forces united to defend young people from the thriving drug trafficking

Friday, 12 June 2020 youth solidarity rascism drugs

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Kara (Agenzia Fides) - If on one hand the international activist movement 'Black lives matter' continues to protest against racist violence on the streets of the United States and other areas of the world, in Africa the phenomenon 'Youth Lives Matter' is increasingly emerging. Father Donald Zagore, priest of the Society for African Missions, writes about the growing drug trafficking among young people in the continent.
"All over the country - explains the priest to Fides - the fear of witnessing a real silent transformation of the African continent into the new Eldorado of drugs worldwide hovers. Huge quantities of drugs are seized every day and we are running the serious risk of moving from simple drug trafficking to real cartels".
"We cannot remain indifferent to a scenario that sees young Africans increasingly penalized. Already afflicted by plagues such as unemployment, poverty, delinquency, violence, they will be the ones to pay the heaviest price", writes Father Zagore. "It is not possible to continue condemning Africa to misery by sacrificing what, in principle, should be the hope of its renewal: young people".
The African missionary notes how the abundance of raw materials, the wealth of the subsoil in general, have not helped Africa to get out of its precarious state but, on the contrary, given the phenomena of exploitation and corruption, "have precipitated the continent in a misery that has become the driving force of all the most dramatic wars in history".
The missionary concludes: "Today youth, on whom Africa should rely, is slowly being destroyed by drugs. To cope with this latest emergency, all forces, political and religious, engaged in the African continent, must become increasingly aware of this disturbing sign of time to attack evil at the root and bring tangible and effective solutions. If we love our young people, if the life of the youth of our continent really matters, then let's defend it, protect it and preserve it from this umpteenth drama". (DZ/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 12/6/2020)