Welcome to Ambazonia!” a market trader shouted in the city of Bamenda, referring to the republic claimed by Cameroon’s English-speaking separatists which Pope Leo XIV is due to visit this week.
The American pontiff makes a landmark visit on Thursday into a protracted deadly conflict in Cameroon, days after twin suicide attacks in Algeria when he embarked on the first leg of his Africa tour.
While Bamenda, the main city in the western anglophone region of Cameroon, has been calm with police and military patrolling in recent days, the near-decade-old conflict continues rages.
“As the pope puts his feet on the soil of Bamenda, we should have peace. All the killing, the kidnapping should stop,” said Giovanni Mbuna, who recounted being abducted by separatists four years ago.
The pontiff, who arrives in the central African country on Wednesday, is to make a call for peace in Bamenda.
The city is the epicentre of the conflict that erupted after demonstrations there in 2016 were put down by the authorities.
Teachers and lawyers condemned the growing grip by the country’s French-speaking majority on the legal and education systems in the two English-speaking regions, which account for 20 percent of the population.
