Pope Francis cancels trip to South Sudan due to security concerns

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will not be traveling to South Sudan this year after it was determined that the proposed trip would be too dangerous due to the deteriorating situation in the war-torn country.

South Sudan, which gained independence from Muslim-majority Sudan in 2011, has been under civil war since 2013 due in part to ethnic divisions between the Dinkas and the Nuers.

The proposed trip was supposed to be an ecumenical event with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, but it was postponed due to South Sudan's worsening security situation.

In October 2016, Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba and other leaders from other Christian denominations traveled to Rome at the invitation of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is now part of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

The delegation invited the pope to visit South Sudan and proposed to make it an ecumenical event, involving Welby, who made a pastoral visit to the war-torn country in 2014.

According to Crux, Francis discussed the proposal during a visit to Rome's All Saints Anglican Church on Feb. 26.

The Christian leaders reportedly asked the pope to "please, come to South Sudan, even for a day, but don't come alone, come with Justin Welby."

"We are looking at whether it is possible, or if the situation down there is too dangerous," the pontiff said at the time. "But we have to do it, because they - the three [Christian communities] - together desire peace, and they are working together for peace," he added.

On Tuesday, Vatican spokesperson Greg Burke confirmed that the proposed visit will not take place this year.

Francis had hoped that the visit could have helped bring peace to South Sudan, where some 300,000 are believed to have died since the civil war began in 2013.

South Sudanese Bishop Erkolano Lodu Tombe, President of Caritas South Sudan and Bishop of Yei, has previously stated that the proposed trip would have reinforced "the trust the local people have in their own local Church authorities."

Apart from the civil war, South Sudan has been hit by a drought that had also affected other African countries, such as Somalia. More than one million South Sudanese are in imminent danger of famine, and as many as 5.1 million are in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance, according to Caritas Internationalis.

Burke said that the trip to the troubled African country is still being considered, but "not for this year." Francis had visited another country going through a civil war in 2015 when he went to the Central African Republic amid strong security. He briefly met with the president of South Sudan in Uganda during that same trip.