Pope Francis takes peace mission to S. Sudan after DR Congo
KINSHASA: Pope Francis o Friday left the Democratic Republic of Congo for a three-day visit to South Sudan to promote peace and reconciliation in the world’s youngest country, riven by the scars of civil war and extreme poverty.
Francis is due to land in Juba at 3pm (1300 GMT), in the first ever papal visit to South Sudan since the predominantly Christian nation gained independence from Muslim-majority Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict.
Peace has eluded South Sudan in statehood too, with a five-year civil war leaving 380,000 people dead, four million displaced, and the young country deeply impoverished.
The 86-year-old pontiff is expected to meet victims of the conflict, as well as the country’s political and church leaders, between prayers and an outdoor mass that is expected to draw large crowds.
The visit – Francis’s fifth to Africa – was initially scheduled for 2022 but had to be postponed because of problems with the pope’s knee.
The affliction has made him dependent on a wheelchair and has seen the itinerary pared back in both countries.
He will be joined in South Sudan by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in what is being billed as a ‘pilgrimage for peace’.
The visit has been long anticipated in a devout country of 12 million where the church is a deeply respected institution with a long history of peace building.
“I am very excited to see him,” Hanah Zachariah, 20, told AFP, one of dozens of pilgrims who walked nine days from the town of Rumbek to Juba, a journey of around 400 kilometres, in a bid to see the pope.
Francis promised in 2019 to travel to South Sudan when he hosted the country’s two warring leaders, President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar, at a Vatican retreat and asked them to respect a hard-fought ceasefire for their people. — AFP