Baglioni to perform at Vatican concert

(ANSA) - Rome, October 11 - Singer and song-writer Claudio Baglioni will perform on December 17 at a live benefit concert at the Vatican for the children of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, and the population of Valle del Tronto, an area devastated by the deadly August 24 earthquake in central Italy.
    The concert, to be held at the Paul VI audience Hall, marks the 200th anniversary of the Vatican's gendarmerie corps.
    It is part of the event 'Avrai' - called after a song written by Baglioni for his son - which was promoted last spring on the initiative of Pope Francis to raise funds for the hospital in the poverty-stricken African city, where a president was elected in February after a devastating civil war between the local Christian majority and Muslim minority that erupted in March 2013.
    Funding will go to train doctors, a local pediatrics department and the construction of new pavilions through the Vatican's Bambino Gesù hospital, as well as to populations in central Italy affected by the quake. During a six-day Africa tour in November 2015, the pope travelled to the capital of the Central African Republic, visiting a mosque under siege from armed Christian militias and delivering a message of peace and reconciliation.