By Editorial,
South Sudan’s rival leaders should honour Pope Francis’ legacy by ending the country’s conflict, the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to the nation has said.
The Pope, who died aged 88 and buried over the weekend, had urged the two sides of South Sudan’s conflict to forge a permanent peace during a historic trip to the east African nation in 2023.
Recent violence has threatened to end a fragile peace agreement struck in 2018 between the civil war’s two factions.
Tensions rose at the start of March, when a militia group allied to Vice-President Riek Machar during South Sudan’s civil war clashed with the army.
Archbishop Séamus Patrick Horgan said Pope Francis “spoke firmly” during his 2023 visit, calling for “no more bloodshed, no more conflict, no more violence”, adding that the late pontiff’s message was still “relevant”.End.