“Enough bloodshed!”: Pope Francis called on the leaders of South Sudan on Friday, February 3, for a “new start” for peace, on the first day of his visit to this country torn apart by power struggles and extreme poverty.

"Future generations will honor or erase the memory of your names depending on what you do now," he said during his first speech to authorities and the diplomatic corps in Juba.

"Enough bloodshed, enough conflicts, enough violence and reciprocal accusations against those who commit them, enough abandoning the people thirsty for peace. Enough destruction, it's time to build!", he launched.

According to Francis, "the process of peace and reconciliation requires a new start" and the "tortuous path" of peace "can no longer be postponed".

The Argentinian Jesuit arrived Friday afternoon in this country of 12 million inhabitants which plunged in 2013 into a bloody civil war of five years, opposing the enemy leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.

The conflict claimed some 380,000 victims, displaced millions and left a battered economy.

Despite a peace agreement in 2018, violence continues, fueled by political elites.

Peace processes "paralyzed"

In 2019, a year after a peace agreement, Francis had received the two enemy leaders at the Vatican and knelt down to kiss their feet, begging them to make peace, a strong symbolic gesture that had marked the spirits.

But four years later, "these promises of peace remain unfulfilled" and "the reconciliation processes seem paralyzed", he said sorry.

Without mincing words, Jorge Bergoglio also castigated the scourge of corruption.

"Unfair financial circuits, hidden intrigues to get rich, patronage affairs, lack of transparency: this is the polluted background of human society", he said.

He also spoke of "the urgency of taking care of citizens" through "adequate health policies", "literacy and education" in the independent country since 2011, the youngest state in the world.

Conscious of his "frank and direct" words, the pope also warned the authorities against "the temptation to serve one's own interests" so that the "abundant resources of the country" benefit everyone.

With AFP

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