Pope Francis became the first pontiff in recent history to visit a war zone when he arrived, declaring himself a “pilgrim of peace and an apostle of hope”.

During a 24-hour visit to the capital, Bangui, Francis was accompanied by Vatican security personnel in flak jackets and armed UN peacekeepers. UN tanks patrolled the streets.

CAR has been embroiled in civil war between a Muslim minority and a Christian majority since March 2013. Thousands of people have been killed, about 1 million people displaced and property looted and destroyed. Human rights violations have included extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and endemic rape and sexual violence.

In an address at the presidential palace on Sunday, shortly after landing in the capital, Bangui, Francis pleaded for people not to give in to “the temptation of fear of others, of the unfamiliar, of what is not part of our ethnic group, our political views or our religious confession”.

The pope’s visit to Bangui has been under constant review by Vatican security officials amid concerns over the pontiff’s security. His schedule includes a visit to a mosque on Monday morning to meet community leaders, in what is regarded as a dangerous Muslim neighborhood of the city known as PK5.

The UN, which has about 12,000 peacekeeping troops in the country alongside a small contingent of French soldiers, sought to reassure the Vatican about the pope’s safety.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the head of the UN operation, told Vatican Radio: “Certainly, you can’t exclude that a saboteur might try to disrupt the calm, but we’re ready to respond in the most efficient way possible.”

Pope Francis with Central African Republic’s president, Catherine Samba-Panza.

CAR’s public security minister, Chrysostome Sambia, said: “Everything has been done to ensure the safety of the pope … there is no real threat.”

Bangui is under curfew each night from 8pm and there are frequent gunfights between rival militias. The city has been relatively calm in the run-up to the pope’s visit, although at least 100 people have been killed in sectarian clashes over the past two months.

The first round of parliamentary and presidential elections are due at the end of December.

When he arrived in Bangui, Francis said: “It is my fervent wish that the various national consultations to be held in coming weeks will enable the country to embark serenely on a new chapter of its history.”

CAR’s president, welcomed the pope’s message of peace. “In the name of the entire governing class of this country and also in the name of all those who have contributed in some way to its descent into hell, I confess all the evil that has been done here over history and ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart,” she said in her welcome address at the presidential palace.

She said she hoped Francis’s visit would result in the “demons of division, hatred and self-destruction being exorcised and chased for ever from our land and that our country can find again the path of a new spirituality anchored in tolerance, love of one another and respect for human dignity and established authority.”

The pope later visited the Saint Sauveur camp for displaced people in the capital. Residents sang and danced for the pontiff and expressed hopes that he would act as a mediator to quell the conflict that has been tearing the country apart since president was ousted in a coup.

Meanwhile, most of the city’s remaining Muslim population were unable to leave the PK5 neighbourhood because of armed Christian militia fighters surroundings its perimeter. Most of the Muslim population of Bangui has been forced to flee, leaving about 15,000 out of 122,000 in the city, according to Human Rights Watch.

Source: theguardian.com