VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Sunday urged leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to act quickly to resolve its political crisis and curb violence, condemning in particular the use of child soldiers.
Violence has flared across the country in recent months, including deadly confrontations in the Kasai regions, as President Joseph Kabila has indicated no plans to step down even though his term ended in December.
Recently, a video emerged appearing to show DR Congo soldiers killing unarmed civilians in Kasai-Oriental, while on Saturday officials said militiamen from the country’s Nande ethnic group had killed 25 civilians in the country’s violence-torn east, most hacked to death with machetes.
“We continue to hear news sadly of violent and brutal clashes in the Kasai-Central region of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Francis said during his address in Saint Peter’s Square.
“I strongly feel the pain of the victims, especially the many children ripped from their families and from schools to be used as soldiers,” he said.
He made “an urgent appeal” to “national authorities and the international community, so that they take appropriate and prompt decisions” to end the violence.
Hundreds have died in central Congo in recent months and tens of thousands have been forced to flee as battles rage between security forces and militias.
Kabila, in power since 2001, was to step down on Dec. 20 at the end of his second and final term, but refused to do so.
A deal brokered by the country’s influential Roman Catholic bishops allows him to stay in office until late 2017 in tandem with a transitional body and a new premier.
But efforts to avoid all-out conflict in the country of 71 million people appear to have broken down, negotiations between the government and opposition parties having stalled.
Francis, 80, also urged prayers for victims of war and violence in other parts of Africa and across the world.
Pope calls for quick accord to end DR Congo violence
Pope calls for quick accord to end DR Congo violence
Military intervention in Iran ‘not the preferred option’: French minister
- The president’s son blamed foreign interference for the protests’ violent turn, but said “the security and law enforcement forces may have made mistakes that no one intends to defend and that must be addressed”
PARIS: Military intervention in Iran, where authorities launched a deadly crackdown on protesters that killed thousands, is not France’s preferred option, its armed forces minister said on Sunday.
“I think we must support the Iranian people in any way we can,” Alice Rufo said on the political broadcast “Le Grand Jury.”
But “a military intervention is not the preferred option” for France, she said, adding it was “up to the Iranian people to rid themselves of this regime.”
Rufo lamented how hard it was to “document the crimes the Iranian regime has carried out against its population” due to an internet shutdown.
“The fate of the Iranian people belongs to Iranians, and it is not for us to choose their leaders,” said Rufo.
The son of Iran’s president, who is also a government adviser, has called for internet connectivity to be restored, warning that the more than two-week blackout there would exacerbate anti-government sentiment.
Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected president in 2024, said, “Keeping the internet shut will create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government.”
“This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied will be added to the list of the dissatisfied,” he wrote in a Telegram post that was later picked up by the IRNA news agency.
Such a risk, he said, was greater than that of a return to protests if connectivity were restored.
The younger Pezeshkian, a media adviser to the presidency, said he did not know when internet access would be restored.
He pointed to concerns about the “release of videos and images related to last week’s ‘protests that turned violent’” as a reason the internet remained cut off, but criticized the logic.
Quoting a Persian proverb, he posted “‘He whose account is clean has nothing to fear from scrutiny.’”
The president’s son blamed foreign interference for the protests’ violent turn, but said “the security and law enforcement forces may have made mistakes that no one intends to defend and that must
be addressed.”
He went on to say that “the release of films is something we will have to face sooner or later. Shutting down the internet won’t solve anything; it will just postpone the issue.”
