By visiting the north-western city, the pope brought renewed international attention to the conflict in the Anglophone regions, which has persisted since 2017 and deeply divided the country. Roads were crowded with people arriving from across the region, including many displaced by the violence, as he urged unity in faith and warned against a world “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, condemning the diversion of resources to arms over human development.
Earlier in Bamenda, Leo XIV presided over an interfaith meeting at Saint Joseph Cathedral alongside a traditional chief, a Protestant leader, an imam and a Catholic nun, in a rare display of cooperation in a region marked by political and sectarian tensions.
