The pope warned on Saturday that South Sudan’s peaceful future depends on how it treats its women in a country plagued by sexual violence, child marriage and the world’s highest maternal mortality rate.
On his second and penultimate day in Africa, Francis called for women and girls to be respected, protected and honored, at a rally in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, with an estimated two million people forced to flee their homes because of the fighting and the floods.
“Please protect, respect, appreciate and honor every woman, girl, young person, mother and grandmother. Otherwise there is no future,” the pope said.
The pope stressed that women are key to South Sudan’s peaceful development, but they need the right opportunities.
The meeting was one of the highlights of Francis’ three-day visit to the world’s youngest and one of the poorest countries. Accompanied by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Presbyterian head of the Church of Scotland, Francis embarks on a historic ecumenical pilgrimage to draw global attention to the country’s plight and encourage the peace process.
The purpose of the ecumenical visit is to encourage South Sudan’s political leaders to negotiate a 2018 peace deal that would end a civil war that erupted after the predominantly Christian country gained independence from Muslim-majority Sudan in 2011.
Upon arrival on Friday, Francis issued a scathing warning to President Salva Kiir and his former rival and now deputy Riek Machar that history will judge them harshly if they continue to delay implementation of the peace deal.
Kiir, for his part, forced the government to return to peace talks – which were suspended last year – with groups that did not sign the Juba accord honoring the ecumenical pilgrimage, including 36 on death row, after Francis argued that the death penalty is unacceptable under all circumstances.
According to UNICEF, about 75% of girls in South Sudan are out of school because their parents prefer to keep them at home to prepare them for marriages that provide a dowry for the family.
Half of women in South Sudan marry before the age of 18 and face the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said in a report last year that women and girls generally lead a “hellish existence” in the country.
“South Sudanese women are physically assaulted as they are raped at gunpoint, usually held by men while they are abused by others. They are told not to resist and not to report what happened or they will be killed” , says the report.
Source: DN
