JUBA, South Sudan — Pope Francis made a ultimate attraction for peace in South Sudan on Sunday as he celebrated Mass earlier than tens of 1000’s of individuals to shut out an uncommon mission by Christian non secular leaders to nudge ahead the nation’s restoration from civil conflict.

On the final day of his African pilgrimage, Francis begged South Sudanese folks to put down their weapons and forgive each other, presiding over Mass on the nation’s monument to independence hero John Garang earlier than an estimated 70,000 folks, together with the nation’s political management.

“Even when our hearts bleed for the wrongs we’ve suffered, allow us to refuse, as soon as and for all, to repay evil with evil,” Francis mentioned. “Allow us to settle for each other and love each other with sincerity and generosity, as God loves us.”

His message aimed to revive hopes on this planet’s youngest nation, which gained independence from the bulk Muslim Sudan in 2011 however has been beset by civil conflict and battle.

President Salva Kiir, his longtime rival Riek Machar and different opposition teams signed a peace settlement in 2018, however the deal’s provisions, together with the formation of a nationwide unified military, stay largely unimplemented and preventing has continued to flare.

“We now have suffered rather a lot,” mentioned Natalima Andrea, a 66-year-old mom of seven who wiped a tear from her eye as she waited for Francis’ Mass to start. “We’d like a everlasting peace now and I hope these prayers would yield to lasting peace.”

In a bid to spur the method alongside, Francis was joined on the novel ecumenical peace mission by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields. The intention of the Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian leaders was to push Kiir and Machar to recommit themselves to the 2018 deal.

Welby and Greenshields joined Francis on the altar at Mass on Sunday and had been to accompany him on the flight again to Rome.

The three additionally aimed to place a worldwide highlight on the plight of the nation, oil-rich and but one of many world’s poorest, the place humanitarian wants are hovering for the two million individuals who have been displaced by continued clashes and years of above-average flooding. Watchdogs’ allegations of corruption are additionally widespread; some South Sudanese upon the pope’s arrival famous that his modest car was overshadowed by native officers’ luxurious ones.

In the course of the three-day go to, Francis, Welby and Greenshields sought to attract consideration to the plight of South Sudan’s most weak folks, the ladies and youngsters who’ve borne the brunt of displacement and make up nearly all of folks dwelling in short-term camps.

They raised particularly the plight of girls in a rustic the place sexual violence is rampant, little one brides are widespread and the maternal mortality fee is the best on this planet.

“If we take a look at South Sudan, I might simply use one phrase: South Sudan is a patriarchal nation,” mentioned Elizabeth Nyibol Malou, a lecturer in economics on the Catholic College of South Sudan. Citing cultural norms wherein wealth is handed all the way down to male heirs and ladies are married younger for dowries, she mentioned it’s a fixed battle to maintain ladies in class.

Girls in South Sudan, she mentioned, “are drained. They’re struggling. They’re annoyed, they usually’re caught.”

Edmund Yakani, govt director of the Group Empowerment for Progress Group, mentioned the go to of the three leaders was an necessary push to the peace course of.

He referred to as it a “crucial publicity of our political leaders in the direction of their private duty for making peace and stability prevail within the nation.”

___

Trisha Thomas contributed.

___

Related Press faith protection receives assist by means of the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely answerable for this content material.