Pope kisses the feet of South Sudanese leaders, urging them to keep the peace

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis, in a dramatic move after an unprecedented Vatican retreat, knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudanese war leaders on Thursday urging them not to return to civil war .

He appealed to President Salva Kiir, his former MP, who became rebel leader Riek Machar, and three other vice presidents to respect the armistice they signed and signed. Agree to form a union government next month.

"I ask you as a brother to stay in peace. I ask you with my heart, let's go ahead. There will be many problems but they will not overcome us. Solve your problems, "said Francis in improvised remarks.

The chiefs seemed stunned by the fact that the 82-year-old pope, suffering from chronic leg pain, was aided by helpers while he was kneeling hard to kiss the shoes of the two main opposing leaders and from several other people in the room.

His appeal was all the more urgent as South Sudan feared that Thursday's coup in neighboring Sudan would compromise the fragile peace deal that ended the brutal civil war that lasted five years.

The Vatican has reunited the South Sudanese leaders for a 24-hour prayer and preaching inside the pope's residence, in order to remedy the bitter divisions before the country has to set up a government. 'union.

"There will be struggles, disagreements among you, but keep them in you, inside the office, so to speak," Francis said in Italian as help translated into English. "But before the people, hold your hands together. So, as ordinary citizens, you will become the fathers of the nation. "

Sudan, which is predominantly Muslim, and the predominantly Christian south fought for decades before South Sudan became independent in 2011. South Sudan plunged into civil war two years later after that Kiir, a Dinka, had dismissed Machar from the Nuer ethnic group. Presidency.

About 400,000 people have died and more than a third of the country's 12 million people have been uprooted, causing the biggest refugee crisis in Africa since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The two sides signed a power-sharing agreement in September, calling on the main rival factions to come together, select and train their respective forces to create a national army before forming a government. union next month.

In his speech on Thursday, Francis said that the people of southern Sudan were exhausted by the war and that leaders had a duty to build their young country to justice. He also reiterated his wish to visit the country with other religious leaders in order to consolidate peace.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the world Anglican community, members of the South Sudan Council of Churches and other African Catholic and Presbyterian leaders also participated in the retreat. Welby had proposed the idea of ​​retirement to the pope.