Pope, Archbishop to meet people displaced by war

4/2/2023 18:41

        Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of Scotland Moderator will meet people displaced by war in South Sudan and hear their stories on Saturday in one of the high points of their visit to the struggling African nation.
        
        The three Christian leaders, on an unprecedented "pilgrimage of peace", will later take part in an open-air ecumenical prayer vigil at a mausoleum for South Sudan's liberation hero John Garang, with 50,000 people expected to attend.
        
        The joint visit by leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Reformed traditions is the first of its kind in Christian history.
        
        South Sudan, the world's newest country, broke away from Sudan in 2011 but plunged into civil war in 2013 with ethnic groups turning on each other. Despite a 2018 peace deal between the two main antagonists, bouts of inter-ethnic fighting have continued to kill and displace large numbers of civilians.
        
        There are 2.2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan, out of a total population of about 11.6 million, and another 2.3 million have fled the country as refugees, according to the United Nations.