The “leaders of South Sudan” will visit the Vatican next week for a “spiritual retreat”, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The arch-rivals, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader and former vice president Riek Machar, are expected to be at the Vatican on April 9 and 10.
“I can affirm that scheduled next week in the Vatican is a spiritual retreat for the leaders of South Sudan,” Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said.
South Sudan country gained independence from Sudan in 2011 with civil war breaking out over rivalries between Kiir and Machar in 2013.
More than 380,000 people have died and four million people have fled their homes amid the violence, with UN warning of ethnic cleansing.
In 2015, a peace deal brought Machar back as vice president, but it fell apart the following year and he fled the country.
Machar is planning to return next month under a peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa last September,.
However, the deal has been rife with delays and continued fighting and a report by the International Crisis Group this month cited a high risk of collapse.
Pope Francis has repeatedly voiced concern for South Sudan.
He granted an audience to Kiir last month and afterwards said he hoped to visit the country to “encourage the peace process.”
