The Pope described the menace as "absurd contradiction" between the international community's calls for peace, the proliferation of the global arms trade and the lack of attention to the suffering of refugees.
"Everyone talks about peace, everyone says they want it but unfortunately the proliferation of all types of arms is leading us in the opposite direction," Francis told a group of new ambassadors to the Holy See.
"It would be an absurd contradiction to talk about peace, negotiate peace and at the same time promote or allow the arms trade," he said at the Vatican ceremony.
While commenting on the issue of refugees, after the death of 17 asylum-seekers in a shipwreck near Libya on Monday, the pope said: "We can't just chase after emergencies.
"It is time to confront this issue in a serious and responsible way with a political perspective.
"In a way it is cynical to proclaim human rights and at the same time ignore or fail to care for the men and women forced to leave their homelands who die trying or do not receive international solidarity.
"There are stories that make us cry and shame us about human beings, brothers and sisters… who undertake perilous voyages and undergo kidnapping, torture and all types of suffering, ending up sometimes dead in the desert or at the bottom of the sea."
It could be recalled that over two hundreds schoolgirls of Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State are still being abducted the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.
The leader of the terror group, Abubakar Shakau, last week said he would not release the girls unless the Nigerian government swaps them with his brethren captured by the Nigerian military.
As at the time of compiling this story, Reports say the Nigerian government led by President Goodluck Jonathan is not ready to negotiate with the terrorists.
International communities, like the US, UK, China, France and others are already rendering assistance to the Nigerian government to fight terrorism and rescue the girls.
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