On independence day, South Sudan's Kiir pledges no more war; Pope says will visit

FILE PHOTO: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir attends a meeting on the cutting of the number of states from 32 to 10, at the State House in Juba, South Sudan February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Jok Solomun

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan President Salva Kiir promised on Friday as the country marked its 10th anniversary that he would not plunge it back into war, as Pope Francis said he would visit if political leaders did more to maintain a fragile peace.

Violence exploded in South Sudan in late 2013, two years after it seceded from Sudan, when Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, sacked vice president Riek Machar, from the rival Nuer group.