Pope Francis has landed in South Sudan, opening the second and final leg of his African pilgrimage with plans to encourage the young country’s stalled peace process.
The pope, who was using his wheelchair, was greeted Friday at the international airport in Juba by South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, as a crowd of thousands nearby undulated and sang in 96-degree Fahrenheit heat.“The long, long expected moment has come,” Archbishop Stephen Ameyu told the country’s state broadcaster minutes before the arrival.
Together, the three represent the religious leadership of the overwhelmingly Christian country, the world’s youngest, which gained independence from the majority Muslim Sudan in 2011 but has been beset by civil war and conflict. The Christian leaders are aiming to give a joint call for South Sudan’s political leaders to put aside their differences and work for the good of their people.
One group of about 80 Catholics from the central city of Rumbek walked for nine days, covering an estimated 300 kilometers , and arrived in Juba to cheers on Thursday. The pilgrims were sore, tired and had blisters, but said they hoped to attend Francis’ big Mass on Sunday and take back blessings to their homes and families.
But fighting continues, evidence of the violence that simmers in communities at times awash with arms and ethnic tensions in one of the world’s poorest countries. At least 27 people were killed this week in Central Equatoria state’s Kajo-keji, in the latest communal violence between cattle herders and other residents. Kajo-keji county commissioner Phanuel Dumo called the attack “barbaric” and urged calm.
But part of the stall in implementing the peace accord is continued political friction between Kiir and deputy Riek Machar, who led opposition forces during the country’s civil war and has long been interested in holding power himself. Lack of political will has been cited by critics for the slow implementation of the deal in a country also hampered by alleged widespread official corruption.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan last year reported that “widespread rape” was being used as a weapon by all armed groups across the country. It expressed shock at interviewees describing “staggeringly brutal and prolonged gang rapes perpetrated against them by multiple men, often while their husbands, parents or children were forced to watch, helpless to intervene.”
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