South Sudan: embassies warn of new violence ahead of Pope’s historic visit

British, Norwegian and the US embassies have expressed grave concerns about possible new fighting in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State just a day before the planned arrival of Pope Francis on Friday (3 February) for his first visit to the conflict-torn country.

The warning by the so-called Troika Embassies about the possible fresh violence has come just before what the Vatican is calling the Pope’s ‘pilgrimage of peace’. There has never been a visit like it: it is the first time in history when a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury make a foreign ecumenical trip together, joined by the most senior figure in the Church of Scotland. Their mission is to bring hope and to encourage leaders to find a lasting peace in South Sudan. But their trip comes at a time when the world’s youngest nation is suffering severe political instability, its people are facing crushing poverty, and many observers are viewing the outlook as bleak.

The United Kingdom, the United States and Norway, who are also peace guarantors for South Sudan’s revitalized transitional government, said violence may break out in Upper Nile, the northeastern state that borders Ethiopia and Sudan on the north.

There is also a mounting concern about reports of a military buildup in an area under the control of a militia group known as the Agwelek forces, Michael English of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said. In 2022, Agwelek militia group signed an agreement with the national government to integrate part of their forces into the national army. In 2022, fighting between Agwelek and other militias displaced over 60,000 people. More than 60% of the population of Sudan is estimated to be Christian, mainly belonging to Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian traditions, though the war has been fought along ethnic and not religious lines.