Prayers, calls for peace: Pope Leo's upcoming Africa tour

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VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo's first major tour abroad to four African countries in April will see the US pontiff broach an array of themes, from interfaith dialogue to calls to fight corruption and inequality.

The trip, which includes seven masses and 11 speeches, takes Leo XIV to Algeria beginning April 13, followed by Cameroon on April 15, Angola on April 18 and wrapping up in Equatorial Guinea, where he will spend two days after his arrival on April 21, according to his programme published Monday by the Vatican.

Leo will become the first pope to visit Algeria, where Islam is the state religion. The head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics will be received by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune before celebrating a mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers.

He will preside over another mass in the eastern city of Annaba, the land of Saint Augustine, who laid the foundations for the Augustinian Order to which the pope belongs.

The pope does not plan to visit Tibhirine, south of Algiers, although the visit comes just days after the 30th anniversary of the murder of seven Catholic monks abducted in 1996 during Algeria's civil war.

Heading south to Cameroon, a multi-faith but Christian-majority country, Leo will meet President Paul Biya and visit an orphanage in Yaounde, before travelling to Doula, where he will celebrate mass at the stadium.

The most symbolic leg takes place April 16, where the pope travels under heavy security to Bamenda in the English-speaking northwest to issue a call for peace. Bamenda is the epicentre of the armed conflict that has pitted government forces against separatist groups for nearly a decade.

The visit to Angola, a former Portuguese colony that gained its independence in 1975, is expected to highlight social themes important to the Chicago-born pope, including conflict related to scarce resources like oil and minerals, the fight against corruption and inequality.

In the capital Luanda, the pope will meet members of the diplomatic corps on the day of his arrival, before travelling by helicopter to Muxima for a visit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Conception. He also plans to travel to Saurimo in the country's east to visit a nursing home.

In Equatorial Guinea, a country with an overwhelmingly Christian population, Leo will visit the capital, Malabo, and two other cities, Mongomo and Bata.

In Malabo, he will meet representatives of the cultural sector, patients and workers at a psychiatric hospital and receive the country's bishops in a private visit.

In the eastern city of Mongomo, he plans to visit a technology school named after his predecessor, former Pope Francis, before travelling to Bata to pray before a memorial to the 108 people killed in an explosion at a military barracks in March 2021. He will also visit a prison.

The trip is Leo's third abroad since his election in May 2025, after Turkey and Lebanon late last year and Monaco later in March.

He plans to visit Spain in June.