As part of efforts to ensure a peaceful global society, Pope Francis on Thursday, 11th April 2019 during a visit to South Sudan, knelt to kiss the feet of the Country's leadership. The Pontiff pleaded with the leaders on the need to maintain peace in the Country.
In his words “the 82-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church said. I am asking you as a brother to stay in peace. I am asking you with my heart, let us go forward. There will be many problems but they will not overcome us. Resolve your problems,” Francis said in improvised remarks.
Pope Francis stunned visitors to #Vatican with a grand gesture of humility by kneeling down to kiss the feet of #SouthSudan’s formerly warring leaders as a plea for peace. pic.twitter.com/QsdisXzpHV
— RT (@RT_com) April 12, 2019
The leaders who appeared stunned as the 82-year-old pope, who suffers from chronic leg pain, was helped by aides as he knelt with difficulty to kiss the shoes of the two main opposing leaders and several other people in the room.
His appeal was made even more pressing as anxiety grew in South Sudan that Thursday’s coup in neighboring Sudan might put at risk the fragile peace deal that ended South Sudan’s brutal five-year civil war.
Recall that about 400,000 people died and more than a third of the country’s 12 million people were uprooted, sparking Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.