Pope to meet war victims on South Sudan peace pilgrimage

JUBA: Pope Francis on Saturday will meet victims of South Sudan's civil war, a day after delivering an impassioned plea for the country's leaders to recommit to peace for the sake of their long-suffering people.Francis is making the first papal visit to South Sudan since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but then plunged into a brutal ethnic conflict that left the young nation divided and traumatised.Some 380,000 people died in five years of bloodshed before the civil war formally ended in 2018, with a ceasefire between warring leaders who remain in power today.But the country remains fragile and violent and Francis, who tried to broker peace between the rival parties, is visiting South Sudan as it lurches from one crisis to the next.At his first event Saturday, the wheelchair-bound pope met South Sudan's religious leaders, who work with the poor and marginalised and are deeply respected in the devout country where 60 percent of its 12 million people are Christian.He said they