Greeted with fervor, Pope Francis arrived in Kinshasa on Tuesday for a four-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest Catholic country plagued by endemic violence.
From mid-morning, people from Kinshasa had begun to gather near the international airport, where the pontiff’s plane landed at 2:35 p.m. (1:35 p.m. GMT).
To the sound of songs, drums, brass bands and tom-toms, the crowd swelled over the hours, growing denser and more impatient. “I saw an angel”, declares a young girl, transported with joy after having seen the pope in his “papamobile”.
On the approximately 25 km leading to the city center, the official convoy was greeted by tens of thousands of people massed along the main avenues of the megalopolis of some 15 million inhabitants.
“Don’t stay at home tomorrow, come and welcome the pope!” The government spokesperson asked the Kinshasa people on Monday evening, in a country where the Church plays a major role in society and politics.
“I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to see him face to face,” Maggie Kayembe, in her thirties, told AFP in the crowd. The pope “always preaches peace wherever he goes, and peace, we really need it”, adds the young woman.
Initially scheduled for July 2022, this visit had been postponed due to the knee pain of the 86-year-old pope, who travels in a wheelchair, but also security risks in Goma, in the east of the country, a stage finally canceled .
“We’ve been waiting for a year, it’s a great trip, I would also have liked to go to Goma but because of the war I can’t,” Jorge Bergoglio told journalists accompanying him on the plane.
For his fortieth international trip since his election in 2013, the fifth on the African continent, the Argentinian Jesuit should above all call for silencing the guns in a country plagued by deadly violence and where two thirds of the approximately 100 million inhabitants live. with less than $2.15 a day.
The DRC is facing the resurgence of the armed group M23 which in recent months has conquered large swaths of territory in North Kivu, a Congolese province bordering Rwanda accused of interference by Kinshasa.
Eastern DRC also has dozens of armed groups, including Islamist rebels who target civilians. This visit also comes two weeks after a bloody attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu.
The head of the Catholic Church is due to meet President Félix Tshisekedi on Tuesday at the “Palace of the Nation”, where he will then make a first speech to the authorities, the diplomatic corps and representatives of civil society.
“This speech will set the tone, it can deliver a strong message to politicians by addressing the issue of corruption”, particularly in view of the general elections to be held in December, underlines Samuel Pommeret, project manager at the NGO CCFD Terre Solidaire for the Great Lakes region.
On Tuesday evening, tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in a prayer vigil at Kinshasa’s N’dolo airport, where they will spend the night, before a giant mass on Wednesday morning at which more than a million worshipers are expected.
In recent days, preparations have accelerated in the Congolese capital, where banners and giant panels compete with messages of welcome for the first pope to visit the country since John Paul II in 1985.
During his visit, Francis will also meet victims of violence, members of the clergy and representatives of charities.
In his speeches, the leader of the 1.3 billion Catholics should address, among other things, the challenge of global warming and deforestation, education, social and health issues and support for the Christian community.
On Friday, he will join Juba, capital of South Sudan, the youngest state in the world and among the poorest on the planet.
01/31/2023 16:20:04 – Kinshasa (AFP) – © 2023 AFP