Pope avoids thorny issue of elections in ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’
Pope Francis (left) meets with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (right) at the Presidential Palace in Juba on February 3, 2023. In Kinshasa, the pontiff avoided sensitive subjects like the simmering tiff with Rwanda over M23 rebels. PHOTO | VATICAN MEDIA| AFP
Pope Francis arrived on a three-day visit to South Sudan on Friday to promote peace and reconciliation in the world's youngest country, traumatised by civil war and scarred by poverty.
The "pilgrimage of peace", with his Anglican and Scottish Presbyterian counterparts, is the first papal visit to South Sudan since the nation gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict.
