27 Killed in South Sudan Violence Day before Pope's Visit

At least 27 people were killed in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state on Thursday when violence broke out between cattle herders and villagers.

The violent attack took place a day before Pope Francis' visit to the country, a local county commissioner told Reuters.

The pope is set to arrive in South Sudan on Friday from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He seeks to jolt a peace process aimed at ending a decade of conflict fought mostly on ethnic lines that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

“In particular, the voyage to South Sudan shows that Pope Francis really wants to do ecumenical peacebuilding in Africa – building community cohesion as a recipe against conflict,” Douglas Yates, an Africa specialist at the American Graduate School in Paris (AGS), explained.

“Together, as brothers, we will live an ecumenical journey of peace,” Francis told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday address, two days before starting his trip to Africa. Meanwhile, Welby spoke of a “historic visit”, with the “leaders of three different parts of (Christianity) coming together in an unprecedented way.”