Pope Francis is set to leave DRC capital Kinshasa for Juba this afternoon. (Courtesy).

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will visit South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo early next year.

The Vatican said Francis would go to Congo from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 and then spend two days in Juba alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The long-awaited visit of the Pontiff was canceled in July this year due to health problems.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, the historic ecumenical trip will mark the pope’s third visit to sub-Saharan Africa.

It will also mark the first time a pope has visited the world’s youngest nation, and only the second papal visit to the Congo, which is home to Africa’s largest Catholic population.

Plans for the three faith leaders to travel to the war-torn nation of South Sudan have been underway since 2017.

In the years that followed, the leaders of the three Christian churches sought to encourage South Sudan’s delicate peace process, meeting together with the South Sudanese president and the country’s rebel leadership at the Vatican in 2019.