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Religious leaders in Ivory Coast have appealed for dialogue and peace ahead of the Presidential election scheduled for October 31 amid persistent tensions.
The Cardinal in Ivory Coast has, in a statement, expressed his concerns about the election-related violence in the West African country and has called on the parties behind the conflict to look beyond the election event and instead focus on reconciliation of the people of God.
Catholic Bishops in Ivory Coast have, in their Pastoral Letter, highlighted the conditions necessary for achieving reconciliation, justice and peace in the West African nation amid rising political tensions ahead of the presidential election scheduled for October 2020.
The need for reconciliation in the world’s youngest nation where a government of national unity has recently been put in place was a key highlight of the Easter message of the Archbishop of the country’s only Metropolitan See, Juba Archdiocese. The South Sudanese Prelate described his country as “broken” and in need of “God’s intervention.”
Following a series of statements by Catholic Bishops in Ivory Coast calling for reconciliation and peaceful elections in the West African nation, a delegation of Prelates in the country was received Wednesday, February 19 by President Alassane Ouattara to discuss the “reconciliation of all Ivorians” as well as peace and stability in the country.
As eligible voters in the West African nation of Ivory Coast prepare to go to the polls in October, Catholic Bishops in the country have, at the end of their Plenary Assembly, highlighted four issues that need to be addressed to avert a possible post-election crisis, top on their list, reconciliation. Other issues include dialogue, the independence of the electoral commission, and respect for the country’s Constitution.
As tensions escalate between Iran and the United States following the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the pope’s diplomat in Tehran is appealing for dialogue.
As the combined armed forces of Government and Opposition group kick-start military training as envisaged in the September 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), the Archbishop-elect of South Sudan’s Juba Archdiocese, Stephen Ameyu has called on South Sudanese soldiers to put the past behind and invest in peaceful co-existence through reconciliation.
In line with the recommendations of Pope Benedict XVI's Post-synodal Exhortation Africae Munus in which he called on the Church in Africa to organize a day of prayer for reconciliation, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ivory Coast (CECCI) is organizing an eight-day prayer event in all the dioceses of the country to pray for peace and reconciliation in the West African nation, beginning Advent Sunday, December 1.
Days after leaders of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) welcomed the second postponement of the formation of a unity government contemplated in the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), a Catholic official of the seven-member ecumenical body used the occasion of the General Assembly of Pentecostal Overseers to outline and explain three pillars guiding the efforts by the Christian churches toward peace in the East African nation.
A day after South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the Vice-President designate Dr. Riek Machar agreed to postpone the formation of a unity government by 100 days, a move that has been welcomed by various groups including Christian leaders, the country’s capital hosted a marathon that attracted some 1,000 participants among them, the 84-year Bishop Emeritus of Torit diocese, Paride Taban.
Three days after the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit and the Vice-President designate Dr. Riek Machar agreed, at a meeting in Uganda, to delay the formation of a unity government by one hundred days, Pope Francis has led the Catholic faithful in praying for peace and reconciliation in the world’s youngest nation and expressed the hope to visit the country
Jesus calls his followers to a high standard – to forgive their enemies, to pray for those who have hurt them, and to seek reconciliation, Pope Francis said at Mass in Mozambique Friday.