REUTERS/Antony NjugunaJUBA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Pope Francis will lead prayers at the mausoleum of South Sudanese liberation hero John Garang on Saturday, an acknowledgement of the importance for the world's youngest nation of perhaps the one leader who could ensure unity. The mostly Christian and animist south voted in a referendum six years later to secede from the mostly Muslim north. When South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011, tens of thousands flocked to Garang's mausoleum in the new capital of Juba to celebrate. Garang rallied South Sudan's disparate ethnic groups behind a common cause. Garang's widow, Rebecca, is one of South Sudan's five vice presidents, along with Machar, in a unity government formed after the 2018 peace deal.

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