Pope Francis on Monday said Christians and Muslims were “brothers”, urging them to reject hatred and violence on a visit to a mosque in a flashpoint Muslim neighbourhood of the Central African Republic’s capital Bangui.

“Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters,” he said in an address at the central Koudoukou mosque in the PK5 district on the most dangerous part of his 24-hour visit to the war-torn nation.

“Those who claim to believe in God must also be men and women of peace,” he said in the district of flimsy shacks and red dirt roads which has been at the heart of recent sectarian violence pitting Muslim rebels against Christian vigilante groups.

“Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself. God is peace, salam,” he said on a visit which has seen him hammering home a message of peace and reconciliation.

Addressing residents crowded into the mosque, Francis said his visit to the Central African Republic “would not be complete if it did not include this encounter with the Muslim community.”

The pontiff has hammered home the message of peace during his visit to the Central African Republic, which has been wracked by tit-for-tat violence between Muslim rebels and Christian vigilante groups.

AFP