Pope Francis on Monday said Christians and Muslims were "brothers" and urged them to reject hatred and violence as he visited a mosque in the Central African Republic's capital which has been ravaged by sectarian conflict. On the last leg of a three-nation tour of Africa, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholic visited a flashpoint Muslim neighbourhood in Bangui on what was the most dangerous part of his 24-hour visit.
Thousands of people gathered at the roadside, cheering as his popemobile drove down the red dirt roads. As his vehicle passed, many waving Vatican flags and dressed in long traditional robes, ran down the road after it, an AFP correspondent said. "Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters," he said after meeting Muslim leaders at the Koudoukou mosque in the PK5 district, the last Muslim enclave in Bangui where tensions remain high after more than two years of violence. "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," he said. The pope later flew out of Bangui to head back to Rome, ending his first trip to Africa that also took in Kenya and Uganda.