Pope Kisses the Feet of World Leaders with an Appeal for Peace

In a dramatic gesture, Pope Francis knelt down to kiss the feet of Sudan’s warring leaders and appealed them not to fight again. The incident happened after an unprecedented retreat of the leaders at the Vatican on Thursday.

Francis also requested the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir, his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek Machar and 3 other Vice Presidents to respect an armistice they have signed and their commitment to form a united government in the month.

Francis said in his remarks, “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”.

The leaders were stunned at the gesture of the 82-year-old Pope, who is suffering from chronic leg pain and was helped by his aides as he bowed down with great difficulty to kiss the shoes of two main opposing leaders and several others in the room. He also shared his wish to visit the country along with other religious leaders of the world to strengthen the peace.

The Vatican has brought together 24 South Sudanese leaders for 24 hours of prayer and preaching inside the Pope’s residence as part of the retreat, which was an attempt to heal bitter divisions before the country is due to start a united government.

Pope Francis who made the appeal in the Italian language, which was translated into English with the help of an aid, said, “There will be struggles, disagreements among you but keep them within you, inside the office, so to speak. But in front of the people, hold hands united. So, as simple citizens, you will become fathers of the nation”.

Sudan is predominantly a Muslim nation and South Sudan is mainly dominated by Christians. They fought for decades before South Sudan became independent in the year 2011. After two years of its formation, South Sudan plunged into civil war when Salva Kiir, fired Vice President Riek Machar. Machar in turn became a rebel and led his Nuer community for an ethnic war against the country splitting the country again between the government and the rebels.

In the ethnic war, nearly 400,000 people were killed and more than a third of the country’s 12 million population were uprooted, sparking Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

In September last year, the two sides signed a power-sharing deal calling the main rival factions to assemble, select and train their respective forces to create a national army before the formation of a united government.