Pope Leo XIV has renewed his appeal for humanitarian corridors in Sudan, urging warring parties to protect civilian populations and calling on the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire. Speaking after the Angelus prayer at the Vatican on Sunday, 9 August, the pontiff chose to deliver his message in English — a deliberate signal of the weight he attached to the appeal.

The Pope singled out El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state in central Sudan, where weeks of deadly fighting have placed large numbers of civilians in acute danger. "While expressing my spiritual closeness to the entire population of this country, I renew my call to the authorities to guarantee humanitarian corridors for the civilian population," he said, also asking God to support those who are suffering and to convert the hearts of "all those who sow violence."

Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has triggered one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with millions displaced and widespread destruction of infrastructure, yet it has received comparatively limited international attention. Leo XIV, the first American pope, has spoken out on the crisis on multiple occasions: earlier this year, in an address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, he described Sudan as having been turned into "a vast battlefield," and in May he received the Sudanese prime minister at the Vatican, reiterating the urgency of a ceasefire.

Sunday's appeal underscores the Vatican's sustained effort to keep Sudan on the international agenda. By calling directly on the international community to support a ceasefire and on all parties to ensure safe passage for civilians, the Pope is adding moral pressure at a moment when diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have so far yielded limited results. Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly warned that access to affected populations remains severely restricted, making corridors of the kind the Pope is demanding essential to any relief effort.