VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope Benedict XVI launched an urgent appeal for an end to violence in Ivory Coast and called for constructive talks to end the crisis.
He also announced he was sending an envoy to the region to encourage reconciliation.
The United Nations said it feared Ivory Coast’s increasingly bloody crisis could become a full-blown civil war; the crisis began when incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office after Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner of elections on November 28.
About one million people have fled the violence and at least 1200 people have been killed since December, according to the United Nations.
Many have escaped the violence by taking refuge in Liberia.
Amnesty International reported on March 31 that at least 10,000 people in Duekoue, Ivory Coast, went to the local Catholic mission seeking help after forces loyal to Mr Ouattara conquered Duekoue, where the mission had already received 5000 refugees.
“The humanitarian situation is dramatic because the fighting has gone on for three days,” said Bishop Gaspard Beby Gneba of Man, whose diocese includes Duekoue.
He told the Catholic news agency Fides that fighting was going on in several towns and villages.
The African Union invited both sides to engage in talks in Addis Ababa on April 4-6.
Pope Benedict said his thoughts were with all the people of Ivory Coast who have been “traumatised by the painful internal conflict and the serious social and political tensions”.
The Pope expressed his concern for all those touched by the violence and for those who have lost loved ones in the conflict.
Speaking in French at the end of his weekly general audience on March 30, the Pope made an urgent appeal that “constructive dialogue for the common good” begin as soon as possible.
The “tragic” nature of the clashes meant there was an “even more urgent” need to rebuild respect and peaceful co-existence in the country, he said.
He asked that people spare no effort in working toward a solution.
Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, told Fides on March 30: “We are pleased about the Holy Father’s words and we thank him for them. We hope that his voice is heard.”
The Pope said he was sending Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace president Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson as his special envoy to Ivory Coast as a sign of solidarity with the victims of the conflict and to “encourage reconciliation and peace”.
