The pope had promised to travel to South Sudan, when he hosted rival leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar at a Vatican retreat but four years since that meeting violence remains a problem in the country.
The "pilgrimage of peace" is the first-ever papal visit to the country since the predominantly Christian nation gained independence from Muslim-majority Sudan in 2011.
UN agencies express 'grave concern' over ongoing violence and call on South Sudan's leaders to investigate and hold accountable all perpetrators of the conflict.
A government official says 56 people have lost their lives in four days of ethnic clashes in the eastern Jonglei state.
Authorities declared a state of emergency and imposed a nighttime curfew in Beleil to help stop the clashes.
Conflicts in Sudan's far-flung regions have killed around 900 people this year and driven almost 300,000 from their homes, UN office reports.
Deadly conflict is a continuation of fighting that started in August in a village in Upper Nile over grazing areas and use of natural resources and has since spread to other states.
The UN says in the latest episode of fighting in the country's Upper Nile state that started in mid-November, over 9,000 people had been displaced.
Around 7.76 million people are likely to face acute food insecurity during the April-July 2023 lean season while 1.4 million children will be malnourished in the east African country, according to a UN report.
South Sudan recorded a total of 31 cholera infections including one death of a seven-year-old child, as the outbreak followed a steady rise in diarrhoea cases in the affected areas.
Specialists' report presented to UN Security Council says the situation in South Sudan is far from a change and the peace deal has become a lucrative venue for elite power politics.
President Salva Kiir orders military officers loyal to his Vice President Riek Machar to be officially integrated into a unified command of the army, a central pillar of the 2018 peace deal.
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