Pope Francis has appealed on Thursday to Somali Islamist militants who perpetrated the recent Garissa attack at a Kenyan university last month to come to their senses and to stop their brutality.
The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics was speaking on Thursday to Kenyan bishops who were on a visit mission at the Vatican.
He said that he prayed for those killed by acts of terror, ethnic and tribal hostilities in Kenya and in other African countries where violence is on the increase.
Pope Francis said he thinks most especially of the men and women killed at Garissa University College on Good Friday and pleaded with those who commit such brutality to come to their senses and seek mercy.
In the deadly Garissa attack which happened in East Africa’s biggest economy last month, the gunmen hunted down Christians while sparing Muslims in that attack.
The gunmen lured the girls to leave their hideouts, promising them that their religion forbids killing women but once they had netted the girls, they sprayed them with bullets, killing all of them.
Pope Francis has repeatedly expressed alarm about Christians being targeted for their faith and condemned the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya in February, among other killings where innocent people are massacred in a brutal manner.
He has urged the visiting bishops to work with Christian and non-Christian leaders to promote peace in Kenya, a country that is predominantly Christian.
