Pope arrives in volatile South Sudan for ‘pilgrimage of peace’

Juba Feb 3 (BNA): Tens of thousands of people sang, drummed and ululated as Pope Francis arrived in South Sudan on Friday for an unprecedented joint “peace trip” with his Evangelical and Scottish Presbyterian counterparts.

The young African country seceded independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict, but civil war broke out in 2013. Despite a 2018 peace deal between the two main rivals, violence and hunger still plague the country.

On the eve of the Pope’s arrival, 27 people were killed in Central Equatoria State, where the country’s capital, Juba, is located, in mutual violence between cattle herders and a local militia.

Initially, the Pope will be accompanied during his time there by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the global Anglican Communion, and Ian Greenshields, director of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Together, the three leaders represent the main religious traditions active in South Sudan, a predominantly Christian country.

Welby and Greenshields were on the tarmac at Juba airport with dignitaries from South Sudan to welcome the pope as he arrived on his plane from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The 86-year-old pope was taken off the plane in an elevator before being seated in a wheelchair to walk along the red carpet into the building.

Huge crowds lined the route of his motorcade into the city, many waving the flags of South Sudan, the United Kingdom, Scotland and the Vatican.

The pope traveled all the way in a small white Fiat, waving through the window, surrounded by larger cars and security men. The crowd cheered wildly and jumped up and down as he passed by.

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The pope, leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, has wanted to visit South Sudan for years, but every time he starts planning a trip it has had to be postponed because of the instability on the ground.

In one of the papacy’s most notable gestures, Francis knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudan’s formerly warring leaders during a meeting at the Vatican in April 2019, urging them not to return to civil war.

Earlier on Friday, Welby said he was horrified by the recent killings on the day before the pilgrimage.

“It is a story often heard across South Sudan,” he said on Twitter. “I appeal again in a different way: that South Sudan unite for a just peace.”

The pope is expected to deliver a speech later in a meeting with authorities, diplomats and delegatesDissatisfied with civil society.


On Saturday, the three Christian leaders will meet a group of displaced people and hear their stories. And on Sunday, the pope will celebrate Mass before returning to Rome.

The pope, on his third visit to sub-Saharan Africa, had earlier ended an emotional visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He was warmly welcomed by huge crowds in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, but he also faced the reality of war, poverty and hunger in the giant Central African country.

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