ALGIERS, Algeria — Pope Leo XIV is traveling to Cameroon with a message of peace for the country’s separatist region and for discussions with President Paul Biya, the 93-year-old leader whose hold on power was extended for an eighth term in a disputed election last year.
The Vatican says themes of the visit, which begins Wednesday with Leo’s arrival in Yaounde, will include combating corruption in the mineral-rich nation and stressing proper uses of political authority. He was flying to Cameroon from Algeria, the first stop on his four-nation Africa tour.
The Vatican has signaled that Catholic social teaching rejects the authoritarian styles of leadership Leo will encounter on the trip. This is the pope’s first visit to the continent and he is history’s first American pope.
Biya, who has ruled since 1982, is the world’s oldest head of state. On arrival in Yaounde, Leo will meet Biya at the presidential palace, then address government officials, civil servants and diplomats, and visit an orphanage run by a Catholic order of nuns.
Cameroonian authorities made a last-minute change to the itinerary, the Vatican said: Biya — rather than the prime minister — will now speak before the pope, and the meeting with government authorities will take place in the presidential palace instead of at a conference center.
Opposition parties dispute the Oct. 12 election that gave Biya another term. His rival Issa Tchiroma Bakary says he won and urged Cameroonians to reject the official result.
This week Leo issued an unrelated message about the proper role of political leaders and the need for “authentic democracy” to legitimize authority and prevent abuses of power. In remarks to a Vatican academy for social science dated April 1, he wrote that democracy is healthy only when grounded in morality and a respect for human dignity; without that foundation, he warned, democracy can become “majoritarian tyranny” or a cover for economic and technological elites.
In Cameroon Leo will hold two major public events. The highlight is a “peace meeting” Thursday in Bamenda, in the country’s anglophone northwest, an area long beset by separatist violence.
English-speaking separatists began an uprising in 2017 aiming to secede from the majority French-speaking state and form an independent anglophone country. The International Crisis Group estimates the conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced over 600,000.
On the eve of Leo’s arrival, anglophone separatists announced a three-day cessation of hostilities to allow “safe travel” for the pope. The Unity Alliance, an umbrella of several separatist factions, said late Monday the pause reflected the “profound spiritual importance” of the visit and was meant to enable civilians, pilgrims and dignitaries to travel safely.
Leo’s other major event in Cameroon is a Mass Friday in Douala, where authorities expect around 600,000 people to attend. On Saturday the pope will travel to Angola for the third leg of his trip, which concludes next week in Equatorial Guinea.