Pope Leo heads to Algeria as he starts four-country Africa tour

The pope will also visit Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea during his 11-day trip to the continent.Pope Leo XIV has begun an ambitious 11-day tour of four countries in Africa, urging global leaders to address the needs of the continent where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.The first American pope heads to Algeria for two days on Monday before continuing to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea in a whirlwind tour of 11 cities and towns, traversing nearly 18,000km (11,185 miles) over 18 flights.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘Terrible for foreign policy’: Trump attacks Pope Leo after peace appeallist 2 of 4Pope Leo urges world leaders to reject war and negotiate peacelist 3 of 4Pope warns world is becoming ‘indifferent’ to violencelist 4 of 4Africa must boycott the 2026 World Cupend of listThe pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, has made only one major overseas trip since being elected last May, visiting Turkiye and Lebanon in November and December. He visited Monaco in March.Leo, aged 70, relatively young and in good health for a pope, is undertaking one of the most complicated tours arranged for a pontiff in decades.More than 20 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Africa, according to Vatican statistics. The three sub-Saharan nations the pope is visiting have populations where more than half identify as Catholic.Algeria, however, is an overwhelmingly Muslim country with fewer than 10,000 Catholics among its population of some 48 million people. This is the first time it will host a Catholic pope.The trip is aimed at continuing to “build bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds”, the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco, told the AFP news agency.Pope to deliver 25 speeches in 11 daysLeo’s tour is the 24th by a pope to Africa since the late 1960s.He is expected to touch on many topics in 25 planned speeches over 11 days, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni told journalists on Friday, given that the four nations face diverse issues.