Pope Francis met with Mbengue Njimbilo, nicknamed Pato, on Friday. Chaplain Matia Ferrari, who has participated in many rescue missions of the “Mediterranean Saving Humans” organization, also came to the meeting at the guest house of St. Martha.
Silvija Krivteža – Vatican
Pope Francis listened to Pato’s testimony with deep emotion. This meeting was an opportunity to talk about the painful experience of thousands of people trying to get to Europe.
The Holy Father greeted the meeting participants and, after listening to them, addressed Pato, mentioning his wife and daughter. At the end of the meeting, Francis gave a blessing, asking the Lord to protect those who “work for others”, as well as those who could not come, those detained in camps and “for all those who suffer”.
Mbengue Njimbilo, known as Pato, was born in Cameroon in 1993 and left his homeland due to an armed conflict in which his older sister was killed. In 2016, he arrived in Libya, in the Karabulla camp, where he met his future wife Matila Dosso, a Christian born in 1993 from the Ivory Coast. In 2017, they had a daughter, Maria.
The family tried four times to reach Europe, but without success. They ended up in various refugee camps that resembled prisons. They planned to reach Tunisia to provide education for Mary. Tunisian police in a group of 30 people took them to the desert and left them without water.
Their group returned from the desert, but Pato was too tired to go any further. He asked his wife to go with the group to save his daughter, but to stay in the desert himself. He was ready to die. At night he met three Sudanese who gave him something to drink. He returned to Libya and looked for his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, they were not found. He was shown pictures from social media in which he recognized their bodies and clothes. They had died of exhaustion. The young man does not know where the remains of his loved ones are.
Pato’s family photo
2023-11-18 22:25:51
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