It took years for Marie Louise Wambale to re-establish her life after fighting between M23 and the Congolese army forced her to flee with almost nothing more than a decade ago.
Like most Catholics here in eastern Congo, she hoped that Pope Francis could bring a message of hope at a time when the M23 rebels are posing their greatest threat here since 2012.
His long-awaited visit to Congo and South Sudan this week comes after he postponed an earlier trip late last year that originally had included a stop in the volatile east. Insecurity, though, has soared in the months since so the pope is limiting his visit to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. An estimated 2 million Congolese are expected at the Mass at Kinshasa airport on February 1, which he said would make it the largest crowd event in Congo's recent history.
In South Sudan, where Pope Francis will travel after Congo, civil war has prevented a visit since 2017. Despite a fragile peace agreement signed more than four years ago to end half a decade of fighting that killed nearly 400,000 people, the security is deteriorating. "It will be a shame after the Pope Francis visit for the deadly and inhuman violence to continue among the conflicting parties,” he added.
The church also helped push the 2011 referendum, which led to the country’s independence from the north. And when civil war erupted in 2013, church leaders risked their lives protecting people, he said.
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