BANGUI, Central African Republic // Pope Francis arrived in the conflict-torn Central African Republic on Sunday, brushing aside security concerns to bring a message of peace and reconciliation to a country where violence between Christian and Muslim militants has divided the capital city and forced nearly 1 million from their homes over the last two years.
Schoolgirls in yellow and white dresses – the colours of the Holy See flag – joined government and church authorities to welcome Pope Francis at the heavily secured Bangui airport.
The pope’s Alitalia charter landed just beyond the settlement for displaced residents that has cropped up on the airport’s edge, housing some of those displaced by the violence.
As the pontiff emerged, a huge cheer broke out from the small crowd and the cheers continued along his motorcade route and then at a displacement camp where children sang him songs of welcome.
“My wish for you, and for all Central Africans, is peace,” Pope Francis said at the Saint Sauveur church camp, where he was mobbed by ululating well-wishers and toddlers who embraced his white cassock. The precarious security situation in the capital of Bangui raised the possibility in recent weeks that the pope could cancel his visit.
Less than a year ago, mobs beat Muslims to death in the streets. While sectarian clashes have left at least 100 people dead over the last two months, in recent days Bangui has been relatively free of gunfire.
In a speech at the presidential palace to interim president Catherine Samba-Panza and the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis said he was coming to their country as a “pilgrim of peace, an apostle of hope”.
He urged national and international authorities to work together to “help the country progress above all in reconciliation, disarmament, consolidation of peace”.
Many hope that the pope’s message of peace and reconciliation can encourage longer-term stability in this nation of 4.8 million. As part of his trip, the pope was to venture into the capital’s Muslim enclave, known as PK5, to meet with community leaders and the uprooted.
Ms Samba-Panza said the pope was being welcomed as a “peace messenger”.
“Many Central Africans hope that the messages he will deliver will inspire a national mobilisation and realisation that Central Africans learn to accept each other again, learn to live together again and learn to go toward peace and reconstruction of their country,” she said.
At the displacement camp at Bangui’s airport, where thousands have lived for nearly two years, there is a sense that things now are the worst they’ve been since December 2013. Sandrine Sanze and her family are back for a second time after the recent clashes, having initially spent nine months at the airport camp.
“It is our prayer that with the pope’s visit that peace will return, we can go home and life can start anew,” she said, sitting on the ground outside her home of scrap metal that she and her husband dragged to the site.
The situation remains tense and fragile. Security on Sunday remained tight. At the St Sauveur church displacement camp where Pope Francis visited, dozens of UN peacekeepers stood guard and security forces wielded portable metal detectors – a rare event in this largely anarchic country.
A UN helicopter hovered overhead at the airport and armed peacekeepers on foot stood lining the road into the capital ahead of the pope’s arrival. The United Nations sought to assure the Vatican that security was under control on the eve of the pope’s arrival. The head of the UN operation, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, told Vatican Radio that UN peacekeepers and French troops were confident that they could keep the pope and his entourage safe.
The Muslim community in PK5 was eager to welcome Pope Francis, Mr Onanga-Anyanga said. Earlier this week, workers were busily repainting a mosque he was to visit.
“The opportunity of the pope’s visit reminds us that aside from being a head of state, he’s also a spiritual leader,” he said. “And it’s perhaps in this dimension that the Central Africans can find the energy, the inspiration so that the country can find the will to reconcile with itself, and that it can plan a future in which all the Central African children can live in unity.”
* Associated Press
