Africa's leading church leaders are demanding that the West stop pushing its "filthy campaigns that promote a civilisation of death on our continent'' under the guise of humanitarian aid, saying these have 'wounded" them "in the depths of our hearts as pastors."

In a letter titled Common Declaration of the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar, 48 bishops and 10 cardinals from the continent bared their sentiments about the West's anti-family agenda, calling it a new form of slavery.

"It can no longer be denied that under the euphemism of 'sexual and reproductive health and rights,' such programs are plainly imposed as a condition for development assistance," the bishops said.

The letter was written in June but released for publication only this month in view of the New York Summit this weekend for the UN's official adoptation of the controversial post-2015 Sustainable Development, according to Lifesitenews.

The African bishops said they are "all wounded in the depths of our hearts... by witnessing the constant sexually ideological bombardment" from Western powers against "life, the family, all that is sacred, the healthy human development of our youth who are the future of Africa, the full blossoming of women and respect for our elderly – realities of which our African cultures have such a keen sense."

"These political and economic pressures have but one objective: the drastic control and reduction of the African population, the planned destruction of marriage and the family,'' according to the bishops.

They urged the people to reject the Western "masters'' and their "ideological objectives'' because they are "killing the continent."

"Pope Francis exhorts us to 'be on guard against colonisation by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological colonisation which are out to destroy the family," they said.

The bishops cited some treaties such as the Maputo Protocol, Addis-Ababa Declaration on Population and Development in Africa beyond 2014, and the about-to-be-adopted Sustainable Development Goals — which they claim only destroy the African family unit through their promotion of contraception, abortion, and sex-education bereft of morals.