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A mother washes her newborn baby in a hospital located in a protected civilian site in Malakal, South Sudan. To encourage the peace process, the Vatican is organizing a retreat for rival leaders at war. By ALEX MCBRIDE (AFP)
The warring rivals of South Sudan, President Salva Kiir, and the rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar will take part in a retreat at the Vatican this week "to work for a peaceful future". declared the Holy See.
Rival rivals will participate in "an opportunity to meet and reconcile, in a spirit of respect and trust," the Vatican said in a statement, describing it as "both ecumenical and diplomatic."
The meeting of Wednesday and Thursday between "those who at that time have the mission and the responsibility to work for a future of peace and prosperity for the South Sudanese people" had been proposed by the Archbishop from Canterbury, Justin Welby, who will also attend the ceremony.
Government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told reporters in Juba that Machar had already left Khartoum, where he was living in exile.
The two men met for the last time last October, shortly after the signing of a power-sharing agreement, when Machar made a brief return to Juba for the first time since his escape on foot under a deluge. shots in July 2016.
Machar was the deputy chairman of Kiir until a quarrel in 2013 that sparked a civil war just two years after Sudan's independence.
Battles between members of the Nuer community of Machar and the Dinka people of Kiir have been characterized by brutal violence, rapes and warnings from the UN against "ethnic cleansing".
In 2015, a peace agreement was signed. Machar returned to the vice presidency in 2016, but the deal collapsed in a few months and gave rise to fierce fighting in the capital. The new conflict has engulfed even more countries.
Machar escaped on foot to the Democratic Republic of Congo and exiled to South Africa and then to Sudan, which played a key role in the last peace agreement.
The power-sharing agreement will restore Machar as vice president and the union government should be in place in May, but observers warn that the implementation of the agreement is in place. # 39; impbade.
Crucially, the two men still have to negotiate the security check of the capital, create a national army and face other difficulties.
Several cease-fire agreements and pacts of peace have not put an end to the fighting, which would have resulted in the death of about 380,000 people, uprooted one third of the population, forced nearly two 1.5 million people exiled and caused lethal episodes famine.
Pope Francis has repeatedly expressed his concern for southern Sudan.
He granted an audience to Kiir last month and then said that he hoped to visit the country to "encourage the peace process".
Participants will receive a Bible at the end of the retreat with the message "Seek what unifies, overcome what divides," said the Vatican.
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