Pope Francis has called for less money to be spent on the military so that more remains for humanitarian purposes.
“It’s our responsibility to help eradicate hatred & violence from human hearts,” the head of the Catholic Church wrote on Saturday on the online platform X, formerly Twitter.
“Let’s encourage arms to be set aside, that there be a reduction in military spending so that humanitarian needs can be provided for & so that instruments of death be turned into instruments of life.”
Francis did not place his remarks in any specific context, but August 19 is designated World Humanitarian Day by the United Nations.
Lack of funding of humanitarian aid as crises multiply
Pope Francis’ plea found an echo in the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ message for the Day, in which he decried the lack of funding of humanitarian aid, the demand of which has increased ten times in two decades. “As crises multiply, it is unacceptable that humanitarians are being forced to reduce aid to millions of people in need,” Guterres said.
The UN Secretary-General further noted that other challenges have also multiplied over the past 20 years, including “rising geopolitical tensions, a blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law and deliberate assault and disinformation campaigns”. Aid workers today also face much greater risks of been killed, injured or abducted. “Humanitarianism itself is now under attack”, Guterres lamented.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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