Pope wraps up Cameroon visit with Mass as he looks ahead to Angola

Pope Leo XIV arrives in procession to celebrate Mass at Yaounde Ville Airport, Cameroon, Saturday, April 18, 2026 on the sixth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 2026-04-18T09:24:38Z Yaounde, Cameroon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV called Saturday for “structures of solidarity” to help those on the margins as he wrapped up his visit to Cameroon and headed to Angola on the third leg of his four-nation African odyssey. Leo celebrated Mass at Yaounde Airport before an estimated 200,000 people, including President Paul Biya, 93, the world’s oldest leader. The jostling, joyful atmosphere underscored the joy the third pope to visit Cameroon has brought the former French colony, where around a third of the population is Catholic. Some people who struggled to walk were brought to the Mass in wheelbarrows pushed by family members. In his visit to Cameroon, Leo sought to encourage young people to have hope despite senses of disillusionment. He also demanded elites stop exploiting the land and its people for profit. In his homily Saturday, delivered in French, Leo said the respect for human dignity was a cornerstone of every society. “For this reason, every community has the obligation to create and sustain structures of solidarity and mutual aid in which, when faced with crises — be they social, political, medical or economic — everyone can give and receive assistance according to their own capacity and needs,” he said. A scarred Angola welcomes the pope After the Mass, Leo will fly to Luanda, the capital of the southwestern African nation, where he will meet with President Joao Lourenco and deliver his first speech before Angolan government authorities. Angola, a southern African country of around 38 million, gained independence from Portugal in 1975. But it still bears the scars of a devastating civil war that began straight after independence and raged on and off for 27 years before finally ending in 2002. More than half a million people are believed to have been killed. The civil war was for years a Cold War proxy conflict, with the United States and apartheid South Africa backing one side and the Soviet Union and Cuba backing the other. (