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Pope hits out at terror attacks in Turkey, Chad, Ivory Coast and Iraq - as well as Belgium - in Easter message

Francis gave his Easter sermon amid tight security at St Peter's Square

Sunday 27 March 2016 12:21 BST

(Reuters)

Pope Francis has used his Easter sermon to urge the world to combat “blind and brutal violence” with “weapons of love” after a spate of terror attacks across the world.

The Pontiff delivered his Easter Sunday Mass to thousands gathered at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City amid tight security. He then gave his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” which focused on violence, injustice and threats to peace in many parts of the world.

His address comes five days after suicide bombers killed 31 and injured 270 in attacks on Brussels Airport and a metro station.

Brussels attacks victims

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1/11Brussels attacks victims

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Adelma Tapia Ruiz

Ms Tapia, 37, was from Peru and had lived in Brussels for six years. She was at the airport with her husband, Christophe Delcambe, and their twin four-year-old daughters, Maureen and Alondra. They were checking in to fly to New York to visit Ms Ruiz’s sisters when the blast struck. The death of Ms Tapia was confirmed by the Peruvian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and her brother Fernando Tapia Coral has told Peruvian radio that she had planned to return to Peru later this year. In a Facebook post, Mr Tapia called her death “incomprehensible” in a Facebook post. Her husband and children survived, but it has been reported that one of her daughters was injured by debris

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Leopold Hecht

Mr Hecht was a young Belgian student working towards a qualification in law at Saint-Louis University in Brussels. The university confirmed in a Facebook post that he was one of the victims of the Maelbeek metro bombing

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Oliver Delespesse

Mr Delespesse, 36, was confirmed dead in the metro bombing by his employers Wallonie Bruxelles Federation, an organisation which represents French speakers in the region. One of his colleagues, Olivier Dradin posted a tribute on Facebook: "I wanted to pay tribute to him and to his family and to all the other victims"

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Sasha Pinczowski

A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Alexander Pinczowski

A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Aline Bastin

Ms Bastin, 29, a former employee of the European Chemical Industry Council, was on the metro at the time of the attacks. Her friends have launched an appeal on Facebook for news of her whereabouts

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Raghavendran Ganesan

Mr Ganesan’s brother has set up an appeal for information on the whereabouts of his sibling, who was on the metro at the time of the attacks. He wrote on Facebook that he had spoken to the Indian embassy, who were still searching for Mr Ganesan

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Sabrina Fazal

There has not been word of Ms Fazal, a 25-year-old Belgian student, since yesterday morning. She would have been on the metro at the time of the attacks, on the way to the Haute Ecole Galilée in central Brussels, where she is studying

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: David Dixon

The family of Mr Dixon, a computer programmer from Nottingham, has not heard from him since he left for work yesterday morning. He is believed to have been on the metro at the time of the blast. “It’s just waiting, which is heartbreaking,” the sister of Charlotte Sutcliffe, Mr Dixon’s partner, told Radio 4’s Today program. His friend Simon Harley-Jones told the BBC that Ms Sutcliffe had been driving around hospitals in the hope of finding him

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Bart Migom

Mr Migom, 21, was on his way to Athens, but never arrived. He was texting his girlfriend, Emily Eisenman, from the train to Brussels airport however she haven't heard from him since the attacks. His cell phone rings, she said but there is no answer

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Justin and Stephanie Shults

An American couple who lived in Brussels are among the missing, their family have confirmed. Justin and Stephanie had just dropped Stephanie’s mother, Carolyn Moore, off at the Brussels Airport when the blasts occurred. Mrs Moore, survived the attack, but the couple has not been found

Referring to recent terror attacks in Belgium, Turkey, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Iraq, Francis urged people to channel the hope of Easter in order to defeat “the evil that seems to have the upper hand in the life of so many people”.

Francis also expressed hope that recent talks about the conflict in Syria could finally bring about a resolution after the “sad wake of destruction, death, contempt for humanitarian law and the breakdown of civil concord”.

He urged Europe “not to forget those men and women seeking a better future, an ever more numerous throng of migrants and refugees - including many children - fleeing from war, hunger, poverty and social injustice".

The 79-year-old also called for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and resolutions to conflicts and political tensions in Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Burundi, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Ukraine.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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