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In a repeated call to end the the fighting in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya, Pope Benedict said “Violence and hatred are always a failure.”
Appealing for an immediate end to the fighting he said all sides should launch peace efforts “to stop further bloodshed.”
Benedict says he is continuing to follow both these dramatic events with great apprehension.
“I pray for the victims and I am close to all those who are suffering,” the pope said at the end of an audience in the Vatican.
Earlier in the week the Pope announced that Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was being dispatched to the Ivory Coast. He remains optimistic he will soon be able to gain entry.
The fighting stopped a day earlier when Gbagbo announced he was ready to negotiate his departure. Hours later, Gbagbo reversed course, leading to the renewed fighting.
In Libya, a NATO-led coalition has been launching airstrikes on ground targets and maintaining a no-fly zone to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
The bishop in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, has been highly critical of the West’s military response to the crisis, saying civilians have been killed as a consequence of buildings being hit or collapsing from the airstrikes.
Nato maintains forces loyal to Gadhafi are using human shields in the war-torn town of Misrata.
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