Pope Francis will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, followed by a trip to South Sudan. He will be delivering a message of "peace and reconciliation" to two sub-Saharan African nations plagued by conflict.
The 86-year-old pontiff is flying to the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Tuesday before heading Friday to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where he will be joined by the leaders of the Anglican Church and the Church of Scotland.
According to Vatican News, the visit is the first of a Pope to the DRC (then called "Zaire") since 1985.
The six-day trip was originally planned for July 2022 but was postponed after Francis suffered problems with his knee, which have recently forced him to use a wheelchair.
There were also concerns about his planned visit to the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to scores of armed groups including M23, which recently came within several kilometres of the commercial hub of Goma.
The new itinerary no longer includes a trip to Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province, though the pope will meet victims of the conflict while in Kinshasa.
It will be the Argentine pontiff's 40th trip overseas since being elected head of the Catholic Church in 2013, and his fifth visit to Africa.
Francis is due to speak publicly 12 times and hold meetings with local officials, clerics and charities, addressing issues including education, climate change and deforestation, and social and health problems.
But his priority will be efforts to restore peace in two impoverished countries ravaged by fighting, from the three decades of conflict in DR Congo's east to the violence that persists in South Sudan after a brutal civil war.
Open-air mass
More than a million people are expected at an open-air mass at Kinshasa airport on Wednesday, and market stalls are already doing brisk business in papal souvenirs including T-shirts and wax prints decorated with Francis' image.
A Belgian colony until 1960, the DR Congo has a strong Catholic following of around 35 million people, but continues to be plagued by poverty despite its vast mineral wealth.
"The pope's voice will be hugely encouraging for the country but will also be a strong spur to the political classes to resolve the country's problems," Mauro Garofalo, head of international relations at the Rome-based Sant'Egidio community, told French news agency AFP.
Security in Kinshasa will be a concern, mainly because of the threat of militias from the east, but Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists Tuesday that there was "no specific threat" against the pontiff.
Among the armed groups operating in DR Congo's east are the Allied Democratic Forces, which the Islamic State group claims as an affiliate and which bombed a Pentecostal church on 15 January, killing 14 people.
Justin-Marie Bayala, a Catholic teacher in Kinshasa, told AFP this week: "We dare to believe that he will bring us lasting peace."
Despite its natural wealth, "Congo also embodies social injustice, the scandal of underdevelopment and poverty", said Samuel Pommeret from the nongovernmental organisation CCFD-Terre Solidaire.
Francis, Pommeret said, "could also deliver a message for the economic actors who benefit from these riches."
(With AFP)
