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Pope Francis arrived in South Sudan on Friday, making a long-awaited “peace pilgrimage” in a devout country torn by years of conflict.
The Pope visited the independent predominantly Christian East African country for the first time in 2011 after a decades-long struggle with Muslim-majority Sudan.
But independence for the world’s youngest nation has not brought peace, and Francis arrives Friday for a three-day visit to the country ravaged by violence.
The country plunged into a bloody five-year civil war between Salva Kiir and Riek Machar in 2013, killing 380,000 and displacing millions of their homes. Both armies have been accused of war crimes.
In 2019, one year after the peace agreement, the Pope welcomed two brothers to the Vatican.
He made a lasting impression of kissing the feet of the two leaders who are now in power as part of the government of national unity (Mr Kiir as president and Mr Machar as vice president).
“Your people look forward to a better future that can only be achieved through reconciliation and peace,” he said.
But four years later, the violence continues, fueled by the political elite.
“People are still being killed across the country,” said Ferenc David Marko, a researcher at the International Crisis Group.
“The situation is worse than it was at the height of the conflict,” he said, due to the current rampant violence.
– In South Sudan, people and the international community hope the 86-year-old pope’s visit will give impetus to the peace process.
Francis will be accompanied by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Church of England, and Ian Greenshields, Supreme Leader of the Church of Scotland.
“I want to believe that this visit will be a turning point,” said Father James Oyet Latancio, general secretary of the Church Council of South Sudan.
The international community fears the country’s fragile and protracted transition will collapse this year and hopes Francis will have a better chance to get his message across.
“I think he is in a unique position to engage the country’s leaders” to achieve a sustainable peace, Nicholas Haysom, UN Special Envoy for South Sudan, told a news conference in January. .
According to observers, the visit will also highlight the Church’s difficult task in areas where there are no government services and where aid workers are often attacked or killed.
The visit will also draw attention to the situation in the country, where nine million people, three-quarters of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“This visit shows that anything is possible. Change is possible, transformation is possible,” hopes Father Latancio.
– Moral Authority –
John Ashworth, a former missionary with more than 40 years of experience in Sudan and South Sudan, says religious leaders have “tremendous trust and moral authority” in this highly devout country.
At the height of the struggle for independence, the Church brokered peace, feeding, protecting, and healing civilians in every possible way in the complete absence of government or international aid.
“The only institution that stayed on earth with the people was the church,” says Ashworth. Ashworth.
When civil war broke out in 2013, clerics again defended civilians and condemned crimes.
Christopher Toonsell, an associate professor of history at the University of Washington and an expert on Christianity in South Sudan, said the attack on a church protecting civilians and the killing of a clergyman was “shocking” against the sanctuary. It is said that it is a situation.
Religious leaders have been excluded from peace negotiations, slightly reducing their political influence and potential role as peace mediators.
John Ashworth said, “There are still voices in the church that are respected, but not as much as they used to be.
Observers say Salva Kiir, a devout Catholic who was particularly moved by the pope’s gesture at the Vatican, is most likely to be sensitive to the pope’s message.
But the president has also been implicated in major political maneuvers, seeking to consolidate his power and ward off potential rivals amid Riek Machar’s split ranks, raising questions about the importance of the pope’s visit. throwing.
“I wonder if Pope Francis’ visit will really make a difference, or if it will be a more symbolic trip,” said Christopher Toonsell.
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