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Pope Leo XIV is to arrive in Cameroon on Wednesday, the second stage of an African tour shadowed by insults from US President Donald Trump and suicide attacks in Algeria on his first day.\n<\/p>\n
The pontiff is to meet Cameroonian President Paul Biya at the start of his four-day visit to the mainly French-speaking country, before heading to a conflict zone where English-speaking separatists have been fighting the army for nearly a decade.\n<\/p>\n
The planned private meeting at 3:20 pm (1420 GMT) with 93-year-old Biya, the world\u2019s oldest head of state, has split Catholics in the central Africa country, who are estimated to account for around a third of the population.\n<\/p>\n
Clergy members have voiced fears it will enable Biya to burnish his image, six months after protests against his disputed re-election were violently suppressed.<\/p>\n
Biya, who has been in power since 1982, is now in his eighth consecutive term.\n<\/p>\n On Thursday, the 70-year-old pope makes a high-security trip to Bamenda, the epicentre of the separatist insurgency, where he will pray for peace before 20,000 worshippers.\n<\/p>\n The origins of the Anglophone Crisis date back to the 1970s, when French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon merged and the Anglophone minority began to fear the loss of its distinctive legal and cultural practices.<\/p>\n A brutal crackdown on protests there in 2016 lead to a full-blown conflict between the army and English-speaking separatists that has yet to be resolved.\n<\/p>\n The violence had caused more than 6,000 deaths by 2024, according to rights NGOs.\n<\/p>\n \u2013 \u2018Blessed are the peacemakers\u2019 \u2013\n<\/p>\n Leo began his historic visit to Africa in Algeria on Monday, where he visited the birthplace of Christian theologian Saint Augustine and celebrated mass at a basilica that draws 18,000 pilgrims each year, including Muslims and Jews.\n<\/p>\n He urged Algeria\u2019s Christians to \u201cbear witness to the Gospel through simple gestures, genuine relationships and a dialogue lived out day by day\u201d.\n<\/p>\n His stay was marred by twin suicide attacks in the city of Blida. <\/p>\n Authorities have yet to comment, but an informed source confirmed the bombings, which were not presumed related to the pontiff\u2019s presence in the mainly Muslim country.<\/p>\n No deaths have been confirmed, other than those of the bombers.\n<\/p>\n Leo\u2019s first international tour initially risked being overshadowed by insults from US President Donald Trump.\n<\/p>\n Trump said he was \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of the pope after the American pontiff called for peace in the Middle East.\n<\/p>\n US Vice President JD Vance also weighed in, urging the Vatican to \u201cstick to matters of morality\u2026 and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important, in the same way that it\u2019s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it\u2019s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,\u201d he said at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n Leo brushed the jibes aside, telling reporters on the papal plane: \u201cThe Gospel says\u2026 blessed are the peacemakers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cI have no fear, neither of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Leo\u2019s visit to Cameroon is the fourth by a pope to the multi-confessional country, nicknamed mini-Africa due to its plethora of ethnic groups.\n<\/p>\n The capital Yaounde has been festooned with banners and flags in his honour.\n<\/p>\n On Friday, Leo will hold mass for hundreds of thousands in a stadium in the economic capital Douala\n<\/p>\n He leaves Cameroon for Angola on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n AFP\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n