AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICA - "The conflict is not about religion", said Ban Ki-moon during the meeting with religious leaders for peace

Monday, 17 March 2014

Bangui (Agenzia Fides) - "We want to pass on an essential message: that the conflict in the Central African Republic is not about religion", said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the meeting held in New York with the leaders of the "religious platform for peace": His Exc. Mgr. Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Oumar Kobine Layama, respectively Archbishop of and Imam of Bangui and Pastor Nicolas Grékoyamé-Gbangou, President of the Evangelical Churches.
The Secretary- General said he was "honored" to meet the three religious leaders, whom he described as a "powerful symbol of their country’s longstanding tradition of peaceful coexistence". "Religious and ethnic affiliations are being manipulated for political purposes", said Ban Ki-moon.
The religious leaders illustrated the dramatic situated being experienced in Central Africa (see Fides 08/03/2014) to the UN Security Council. The UN Secretary-General explained that CAR needs more “more aid to save lives” and “more troops and police to protect civilians,” and urged the Security Council to act quickly on those recommendations for a United Nations peacekeeping operation. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 17/03/2014)


Share: