Day: February 4, 2023

Pope Francis on Saturday meets victims of South Sudan’s civil war, a day after delivering an impassioned appeal for the country’s leaders to recommit to peace for the sake of their long-suffering people.

Francis is making the first papal visit to South Sudan since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and plunged into a brutal ethnic conflict that left the young nation divided and traumatised.

Some 380,000 people died in five years of bloodshed before the civil war formally ended in 2018, with a ceasefire between warring leaders who remain in power today.

But the country remains fragile and violent and Francis, who tried to broker peace between the rival parties, is visiting South Sudan as it lurches from one crisis to the next.

On Saturday, the 86-year-old Argentine will address a group of South Sudanese living in a camp outside Juba who were forced to flee ethnic violence during the war years.

They will be brought to an audience in the capital city with Francis, who has made the defence of migrants and those on the margins a pillar of his papacy.

Despite a peace deal technically ending the war, conflict still drives people from their homes, and there are some 2.2 million internally displaced across South Sudan, according to UN data from December.

On Saturday evening, Francis will hold a joint prayer with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, who are joining him in the country.

He will also meet South Sudan’s religious leaders, who work with the poor and marginalised and are deeply respected in the devout country where 60 percent of its 12 million people are Christian.

On Friday, Francis delivered a pointed speech to the country’s political leaders, warning they must make “a new start” toward reconciliation and end the greed and power struggles tearing the nation apart.

“Future generations will either venerate your names or cancel their memory, based on what you now do,” he told an audience that included President Salva Kiir and his rival and deputy Riek Machar, as well as diplomats, religious leaders and traditional kings.

“No more bloodshed, no more conflicts, no more violence and mutual recriminations about who is responsible for it, no more leaving your people athirst for peace,” Francis said.

The pope promised in 2019 to travel to South Sudan, when he hosted Kiir and Machar at a Vatican retreat and asked them to respect a hard-fought ceasefire for their people.

In scenes that reverberated in South Sudan, Francis knelt and kissed the feet of two foes whose personal armies had been accused of horrific war crimes.

But four years later, the country remains mired in intractable conflict and lags at the bottom of global rankings on health, poverty and stable governance.

Human rights groups have urged Francis to press South Sudan’s leaders to address widespread impunity for abuses and deliver justice for victims of war-era atrocities committed on their watch.

The stop in South Sudan follows a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, another resource-rich country plagued by persistent conflict and also often overlooked by the world.

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.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Heads of State from the East African Community (EAC) will this Saturday meet in Bujumbura to assess the security situation in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.

“EAC Heads of State are tomorrow, 4th February 2023, convening in Bujumbura, Republic of Burundi, for the 20th Extra-Ordinary Summit of EAC Heads of State. Agenda: Evaluation of the Security Situation in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo & Way Forward,” EAC Secretary General Dr Peter Mathukie said in a statement.

The meeting comes barely two weeks after EAC called on all parties in DRC to establish an immediate ceasefire, respect international law, and ensure the safety and security of civilians, in order to enable a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict.

This is after an attack on worshippers at a church in Kasindi Town, North Kivu carried out on Jan 15 left several people dead and scores of others injured.

In a statement at the time, Dr. Mathuki conveyed EAC’s solidarity with President Fèlix Tshisekedi, the Government, and the people of DRC.

“The Secretary General strongly condemns this cowardly and heinous crime and extends his sincere condolences to the families of the victims, the people and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, while wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.”

He said EAC is committed to the restoration of peace in Eastern DRC and has extended its full support in the pursuit of a sustainable solution to the protracted security situation.

The EAC Secretary General restated the call by EAC Heads of State for all local armed groups in Eastern DRC to embrace consultations, lay down their arms, and join the political process.

Further, he reiterated the full respect for the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo and restates the commitment to the utilisation of existing regional and global frameworks to address conflict.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Friday renewed its call for the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels to withdraw from all occupied areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and requested the disarmament of all armed groups.

In a press statement, the council members strongly condemned the recent series of attacks by the M23 in North Kivu province in the DRC and the advances of the rebel group.

They reiterated their demand for the immediate cessation of hostilities and of any further advances by the M23 and its withdrawal from all occupied areas as agreed through the African Union-endorsed Luanda process.

Last November, African leaders at a mini-summit in Luanda, Angola’s capital, agreed on an immediate ceasefire in North Kivu, the immediate withdrawal of M23 from the occupied areas, and the disarmament and repatriation of foreign armed groups, among others.

In the statement, the 15-member council also strongly condemned the recent attacks by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo against civilians in DRC’s Ituri and North Kivu provinces.

The eastern part of the DRC has been troubled for decades by multiple militia groups, in particular rebels of the ADF and the M23.

The council members demanded that all members of armed groups immediately and permanently disband, lay down their arms, reject violence, end and prevent violations perpetrated against women and children and release children from their ranks.

They also urged foreign armed groups to return to their countries of origin.

The council members “reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity” of the DRC, said the statement.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Italy’s coast guard Friday found eight bodies, including the body of a pregnant woman, on a migrant vessel that was attempting to make the journey across the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Italy.

The bodies were unloaded on Italy’s Lampedusa island, the first stop for many migrants on the journey across the sea.

Dozens more Africans were aboard the vessel, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency.

Survivors of the journey told officials that three other people had died at sea, ANSA reported. They said a women died and fell into the water with her 4-month-old son, who drowned. In addition, survivors said a man passed out and fell into the water.

The Guardian reports that authorities on Malta had been alerted to the migrants’ situation at sea, but no rescue was dispatched. Prosecutors in Sicily have launched an investigation, the newspaper said.

Source: Voice of America