Pope heads to epicenter of Cameroon’s separatist conflict to preach message of peace

Pope blasts ‘tyrants’ ravaging the planet during his visit to Cameroon 1 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV blasted those he claimed were “ravaging” Earth with war and exploitation, as he preached a message of peace Thursday in the epicenter of a separatist conflict considered one of the world’s most neglected crises. 2 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV arrives in procession to celebrate a Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 3 of 8 | People wait for Pope Leo XIV in Bamenda, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 4 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 5 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV leads a meeting for peace at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 6 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV, with the Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, left, leads a meeting for peace at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 7 of 8 | Faithful attend a meeting for peace, lead by Pope Leo XIV at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 8 of 8 | Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 1 of 8 Pope Leo XIV blasted those he claimed were “ravaging” Earth with war and exploitation, as he preached a message of peace Thursday in the epicenter of a separatist conflict considered one of the world’s most neglected crises. Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 2 of 8 Pope Leo XIV arrives in procession to celebrate a Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 3 of 8 People wait for Pope Leo XIV in Bamenda, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 4 of 8 Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 5 of 8 Pope Leo XIV leads a meeting for peace at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 6 of 8 Pope Leo XIV, with the Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, left, leads a meeting for peace at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 7 of 8 Faithful attend a meeting for peace, lead by Pope Leo XIV at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon, with the local community Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 8 of 8 Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate Mass at Bamenda-airport" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="117231" data-entity-type="location">Bamenda Airport, Cameroon, Thursday, April 16, 2026, on the fourth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Bamenda, Cameroon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV blasted the “handful of tyrants” who are ravaging Earth with war and exploitation, as he preached a message of peace Thursday in the epicenter of a separatist conflict in central Africa considered one of the world’s most neglected crises.Leo traveled to the western Cameroon city of Bamenda, where jubilant crowds clogged the roads, blowing horns and dancing. They were overjoyed that a pope had come so far to see them and put a global spotlight on the violence that has traumatized this region for nearly a decade. Leo presided over a peace meeting involving a Mankon traditional chief, a Presbyterian moderator, an imam and a Catholic nun. The aim was to highlight the interfaith movement that has been seeking to end the conflict and care for its many victims.In his remarks in the St. Joseph Cathedral, on land donated by the Mankon, Leo praised the peace movement and warned against allowing religion to enter conflicts. It’s a theme he has been echoing amid the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and the religious justifications for it by U.S. officials. “Blessed are the peacemakers!” he said. “But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” He called for a “decisive change of course” that leads away from conflict and the exploitation of the land for military or economic gain. “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters!” he said.Leo’s comments were directed at Cameroon’s separatist conflict. But Vatican officials have made clear that on this trip, he is preaching the Gospel message of peace that surpasses borders and continents, and is meant for all those responsible for the wars and exploitation ravaging Earth. Leo said Bamenda was a model for the rest of the world. “Bamenda, today you are the city on the hill, resplendent in the eyes of all!” Leo said in English, using a phrase often understood as referring to American exceptionalism.It wasn’t immediately clear if any of Cameroon’s separatist fighters, who announced a three-day pause in fighting to allow the pope safe passage to Bamenda, attended. A conflict rooted in colonial historyThe conflict in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions is rooted in Cameroon’s colonial history, when the country was divided between France and Britain after World War I. English-speaking regions later joined French Cameroon in a 1961 U.N.-backed vote, but separatists say they have since been politically and economically marginalized.In 2017, English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion with the stated goal of breaking away from the French-speaking majority and establishing an independent state. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced over 600,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group.Leo arrived to a raucous welcome in Bamenda, where blasting music from loudspeakers gave the event a concert-like vibe. “We are so overjoyed, so overwhelmed,” said Felicity Cali, a Catholic student. “Say thank you, God, for this extraordinary day and for making us be alive to see this day.”Leo kept up the theme in his homily before an estimated 20,000 people who gathered for his afternoon Mass at Bamenda’s airfield, where they went wild when he looped around the crowd in his covered popemobile. Leo pointed to the “moral, social and political corruption,” that afflicts Cameroon, stifling its development.Added to these internal problems of conflict and corruption “is the damage caused from outside, by those who, in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it,” he said.It was a cry that echoed the words of Pope Francis when he traveled to Congo in 2023. “Hands off Africa!” he exhorted the foreign interests plundering the continent.Cameroon’s separatist movement is believed to be backed by several actors abroad. In December, a federal jury in U.S. convicted two individuals for conspiracy to provide funds and equipment to the separatist fighters. Belgian authorities in March also announced they had arrested four people as part of investigations into Belgian residents suspected of being among the separatist leaders and raising money for them there. “Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death,” Leo said. “It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience.”Cameroon sits atop significant reserves of oil, natural gas, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamonds, making resource extraction one of the pillars of its economy. While French and English companies have long dominated the extraction industry in Cameroon, Chinese companies have established a significant presence in recent years, particularly in the gold mining regions of the east. Though the number of deadly attacks by separatists has decreased in recent years, the conflict shows no sign of resolution. Peace talks with international mediators have stalled, with both sides accusing each other of acting in bad faith.Morine Ngum, a mother of three whose husband was shot dead in 2022 by Cameroonian soldiers while fighting as a separatist, expressed doubt that the pope’s visit and peace meeting would lead to meaningful change. She said any real progress must begin with those in power. “Nothing is going to change,” said Ngum, 30. “This conflict has turned my children into orphans and me into a widow. Many families have been rendered homeless.”Testimony to pope about the toll of the conflictThe archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, told Leo that the people there had suffered from “a situation they did not create,” losing their livelihoods, homes and education: Children were not allowed to go to school for years.“Most Holy Father, today that your feet are standing on the soil of Bamenda that has drunk the blood of many of our children,” he said.The Right Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, emeritus moderator of the Presbyterian church in Cameroon, said the Vatican had joined other faith groups in trying to bring the separatists to the negotiating table with the government, and meeting with their supporters abroad.Biya’s government has been accused of shunning dialogue with the separatists. “There is a proverb in Africa that ‘When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,’” Forba said.___Akua reported from Yaounde, Cameroon. Associated Press writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them.