Categories: News

Before Leaving, Pope Asks Central African Republic To Lay Down Arms

Credit: Jerome Delay, AP

On Monday, Pope Francis (pictured below) completed his three-nation tour of Africa, leaving the Central African Republic‘s Bangui Monday morning, according to Reuters.

RELATED: Pope Starts Africa Tour in Kenya

Pope Francis crowned his trip with what has been described as “the most difficult part of his Africa tour” with a visit to a mosque.

While there, he encouraged unity between religions, insisting, “Christians and Muslims are Brothers and Sisters.”

Crowds of children, wearing white hijabs (pictured), greeted the Pope at the mosque, with Imam Tidiani Moussa Naibi saying of the Pope’s visit, “[It is] a symbol which we all understand.”

Afterward, the Pope held his final mass.

The Pope was advised against visiting the landlocked country due to the incessant fighting that has taken place there since 2013, when a mostly Muslim coup removed President Francois Bozize from power.

Thereafter, fighting took a decidedly religious turn, exacerbating violence in an already precarious nation.

On Sunday, the Pope beckoned fighting factions to put down their arms and expressed optimism that the nation’s January elections would start a “new chapter” for the country, which is 50 percent Christian and 15 percent Muslim.

The Pope began his trip in Kenya then traveled to the neighboring Uganda before visiting CAR.

SEE ALSO: New Tanzanian President Rejects Business as Usual, Cancels Independence Day Celebration

Abena Agyeman-Fisher

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women's Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.

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