SW News: Pope Francis has called for the release of the nine Catholics, including five priests and a religious sister, who were abducted in Cameroon’s Mamfe. In his Angelus address at the conclusion of the Eucharistic Congress in the historic Italian city of Matera on Sunday, the Holy Father prayed for peace for Cameroon which has been ravaged by a civil war raging since 2017. “I pray for them and the populations of the ecclesiastical province of Bamenda: may the Lord give peace to hearts and to the social life of that dear country,” he said.

Media had reported that St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Nchang was set ablaze on the night of September 16, followed by the kidnapping of the five priests, the nun, a cook, a catechist, and a 15-year-old girl living in the convent.

The Mamfe diocese is located in the southwest region where Anglophone separatists have been waging war against the federal authorities of the largely Francophone nation. In a statement, the Catholic Bishops strongly condemned the attacks and said that ‘enough is enough’.

In Cameroon, the ongoing civil war, also known as the Anglophone Crisis or the Ambazonia War, has claimed thousands of lives. Armed separatists from the Anglophone regions are up in arms against government forces as they want independence for the region. Both sides have been accused of atrocities, including the murder and torture of civilians.

The Pope has also sought peace for those suffering in Myanmar and Ukraine during the conclusion of Holy Mass in the Italian city of Matera.

He prayed for Myanmar, where he said “for more than two years that noble country has been martyred by serious armed clashes and violence, which have caused many victims and displaced persons.” He also said that he had heard the “cry of grief at the death of children in a bombed school."

He said, “May the cry of these little ones not go unheard! These tragedies must not happen!”

In Myanmar, after the Army seized power in February 2021 toppling the Aung San Suu Kyi government, the civil war involving armed separatists in a few states has killed thousands and displaced many more.

The pope also expressed his closeness to the Ukrainians and invoked the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, to comfort the “martyred Ukrainian people.” He prayed that world leaders may find “the strength of will immediately to find effective initiatives to bring the war to an end.”