João Lourenço, who traveled to Senegal on Sunday at the invitation of his Senegalese counterpart, Macky Sall, spoke this Monday at the Peace and Security Forum, which takes place in Dakar under the motto: "Africa in the face of exogenous shocks: stability challenges and sovereignty".
The head of state stressed that, "in the last two years, the world has faced the difficult and complex problem caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and has had to seek, in the midst of uncertainties and doubts, quick and efficient solutions that help to reorient life of people and countries, not only to face the problem and try to overcome it".
According to João Lourenço, in the context of the existing structural weaknesses on the African continent, it is much more complicated and difficult to repair the damage that the covid-19 pandemic has caused to the economies of African countries.
"And it is quite clear that, in the current post-covid circumstances, there is a worsening of economic and social conditions, whose effects on the lives of our populations are not negligible", he underlined.
According to the President, the fight that was being waged against poverty and the programs that were being implemented with this objective, not only had to be postponed, but they could no longer count on the resources available to the countries, "which there weren't many anymore, as they were channeled to the fight against covid-19 and to mitigate its most direct effects".
"Assuming that poverty has worsened, as a result of what I mentioned before, we have to recognize that the probability of new stress factors that could lead to conflicts has increased exponentially", he expressed.
João Lourenço defended that Governments should face this situation "with the necessary objectivity" and seek to resolve it based on the rational and responsible use of the resources at their disposal, in order to prevent themselves "against the malicious use of these difficulties by adverse forces".
