By Joshua McElwee
YAOUNDE, April 16 (Reuters) – Pope Leo was scheduled to travel to the biggest city in Cameroon’s conflict-hit anglophone region on Thursday, the latest stop on an ambitious four-country Africa tour amid attacks on the pontiff by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump’s attacks on Leo, who has emerged as a vocal critic of the Iran war, have caused dismay in Africa, where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
Leo told Reuters on Monday that he would not stop speaking out about the war and has avoided responding to Trump directly since then.
After arriving in the Cameroon capital Yaounde on Wednesday, he urged the government of the Central African nation – led by President Paul Biya, at 93 the world’s oldest ruler – to root out corruption and resist “the whims of the rich and powerful”.
CLERGY CAUGHT UP IN CAMEROON CONFLICT
Leo’s trip on Thursday to the anglophone city of Bamenda has stirred faint hope that steps might be taken to resolve the conflict there, rooted in the country’s complex colonial and post-colonial history.
Cameroon, a former German colony, was partitioned by Britain and France after World War One. The French part won independence in 1960 and was joined a year later by the smaller English-speaking British area to the west.
More than 6,500 people have been killed and more than half a million displaced in fighting between government forces and anglophone separatist groups, according to the International Crisis Group.
Priests are frequently kidnapped for ransom and some have been killed. A separatist alliance said it would observe a three-day ceasefire to allow civilians and visitors to move freely during the pope’s visit.
Biya has not travelled to the anglophone regions since the fighting began.
Efforts to broker a peace deal have so far amounted to little, though on Thursday Leo said he was heartened that the crisis “has not degenerated into a religious war” and expressed hope that Christian and Muslim leaders could mediate an end to the fighting.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Alex Richardson)
