Pope Francis sends monetary aid to South Sudan following postponement of proposed trip

Pope Francis will send nearly half a million dollars to South Sudan to help fund church-run projects following the postponement of his trip to the war-torn country last month.

The Vatican has announced on Wednesday that the pontiff will be aiding projects in the areas of education, healthcare, and agriculture as part of the "Pope for South Sudan" initiative.

According to Catholic News Agency, the initiative will be coordinated through the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, and by Caritas International.

Turkson told reporters at a Vatican press conference on Wednesday that while Francis' planned trip to South Sudan could not happen this year, the pope still "wants to make tangible the presence and closeness of the Church with the suffering people" in the country through the initiative,

"He fervently hopes to be able to go there as soon as possible on an official visit to the nation; the Church does not shut hope out of such an afflicted area," the Cardinal stated, as reported by Catholic Herald.

The project will be providing aid to the Wau Hospital in the Western Bahr el-Ghazal state, and Nzara Hospital in the Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, both of which have fewer than 130 beds between all of the departments.

The cardinal said that the initiative should not be seen as the only and first time the pope had shown interest in the situation in South Sudan.

Turkson, who had visited the country twice on behalf of the pontiff, said that the program was just the pope's "latest gesture."

"The Holy Father stays very close to the situation in South Sudan to try to a help, to be paternal to the situation over there and to try to afford the help that he can," he said.

A civil war erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, just two years after it became independent from Sudan in 2011.

In February, some parts of the war-torn country have been declared to be under conditions of famine. The classification was lifted on Wednesday following an increase in aid, but the situation remains desperate as an increasing number of people are still at risk of starvation.

An estimated 3.8 million people have been displaced and at least 28 million are in need of food aid.

Turkson asserted that the intervention of the international community is needed to help end the conflict and bring about peace in South Sudan.

He said that Francis is a "universal shepherd who crosses borders," adding that the pontiff "feels the pressing need to raise awareness of the international community about this silent drama, calling for greater and renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict."