Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Authorities Tried To Discourage The Vatican Against The Decision By The Pope To Visit B’da. But The Presidency Was Forced To Accept The Visit To B’da, When POPE LEO XIV Threatened To Cancel The Planned Visit To Cameroon, If Bamenda Was Not On The Programme. The Question Now, After The Visit, Is Whether President Biya And His Men, Will Respect, Or Ignore, The Pope’s Message
The current Head of the Roman Catholic Church in the world, Pope Leo XIV, who is also the Head of the Vatican State, was in Cameroon from Wednesday, April 15 to Saturday, April 18, 2026, as part of his visit to four African nations. This was Pope Leo XIV’s maiden visit to Africa.
During the visit to Cameroon, Pope Leo XIV travelled to Bamenda (the headquarters of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province of the Church) on Thursday, April 16, and to Douala (headquarters of the Douala Ecclesiastical Province) on Friday, April 17. The Pope’s base during his visit to Cameroon was the nation’s capital, Yaounde which is also the headquarters of the Yaounde Ecclesiastical Province of the Church,
There is no doubt that Pope Leo XIV’s outing that drew the highest attention was definitely his visit to Bamenda, the headquarters of the war torn Northwest Region; one of the two Anglophone Regions in the country. This was of course for obvious reason, which is that an armed conflict has been ranging on, in the two Anglophone Regions in Cameroon, between Government troops and separatist fighters who want to create an independent State known as Ambazonia, and whose leaders are based outside the country, especially in the United States.
As the Archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Fuanya Nkea, who is also the current President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, remarked to Pope Leo XIV at the end of his visit to Bamenda, some people did not want the Pope to visit Bamenda, and had tried to discourage him. But as the Archbishop stated, the Pope insisted on visiting Bamenda. Mgr Nkea praised Pope Leo XIV for having insisted to visit Bamenda, and had gone ahead to courageously do so. Evidence that Pope Leo XIV, is prepared to sacrifice even his life, in carrying his message of peace across the world, especially to areas which need peace the most.
Authorities Were Initially Against The Decision By The Pope To Visit Bamenda
The Mentor News learnt that it was in fact Cameroonian authorities that had tried to discourage Pope Leo XIV from visiting Bamenda, and that there were three major reasons for this.
The first reason of course was the issue of security, considering that the armed conflict between Government troops and separatist fighters is still raging on, despite the claim by the regime or elites of the ruling CPDM, that normalcy is returning to the two Anglophone Regions. So authorities in Yaounde were concern with the security situation in Bamenda that, have since become like the headquarters of the separatist fighters. There have also been the appearance on the scene in Bamenda of several armed gangs or criminals gangs, involved in kidnapping for ransoms, assassination, armed robbery and so on, that are taking advantage of the chaotic situation, to pretentiously or falsly pass around as separatist fighters .
The second reason was that President Biya has since the eruption of the Anglophone Crisis in 2016, that is, some 10 years today, not gone to Bamenda or to any part of the two Anglophone Regions, despite several calls for him to visit Bamenda in particular. It was thus an embarrassment to the regime, that the Pope who is the Head of the Vatican State, and thus also has the Status of Head of State, should come to Cameroon and travel to Bamenda in connection to the Anglophone Crisis, when the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has himself not been able to make it to Bamenda since the crisis started.
The third reason was the issue of infrastructure. The Bamenda Airport was for example in bad shape, having been abandoned for a number of the years, due to insecurity or the armed conflict. The long stretch of road from the Bamenda Airport to the central town was also in bad shape. For the Pope to come to Bamenda, and also visit the Cathedral, meant that the Government had to urgently look for funds to as well urgently carry out a number of works in Bamenda.
Pope Insist On Visiting Bamenda
Bu due partly to the strong lobby that was untiringly mounted by the Archbishop of Bamenda , Andrew Nkea, who also exploited his post of President of the National Episcopal Conference, and due also to the Pope’s determination to take the peace to Bamenda, Pope Leo XIV insisted that the visit to Bamenda had to be on the programme of his visit to Cameroon. In fact the Pope was said to have at one point made it clear to the Cameroon authorities, precisely to the Presidency, that if the visit to Bamenda was not put on the programme of his visit to Cameroon, he would drop the planned visit to Cameroon, from the programme of his visit to Africa. That was when the authorities stopped the attempt to try to persuade the Pope to drop the plan to travel to Bamenda .
The Government then had to resort to some urgent actions, by getting the Military Engineering Core commonly known as ‘Genie Militaire’, to carry out emergency maintenance works at the Bamenda Airport, as well as on the 14 km stretch of road from the airport to the central town. 850 million francs CFA for example, was urgently allocated for the maintenance of the road from the Bamenda Airport, to the central town. The Bamenda City Council was also brought in, to as a matter of urgency, raise funds to handle some for the important needs for the Pope’s visit, like the provision of thousands of chairs that were to be used at the Pontifical Mass that took place at the Bameda Airport.
Meanwhile as regard the security situation, it should be noted that separatist fighters facilitated thing for the State security forces, as they announced a three day truce during the Pope’s visit to Bamenda.
The Pope Prayed For Peace, Called For Forgiveness And Reconciliation
Pope Leo XIV visited Bamenda on Thursday, April 16, 2026. The one day visit ended with a heavily attended Pontifical Mass at the Bamenda Airport. During the visit to the Bamenda Cathedral, the Pope among other things manifested a symbolic gesture of a strong call for peace, by holding a dove, and then letting it fly off. The Pope was accompanied in the symbolic gesture by five designated personalities including the Imam of Buea,
During Pontifical Mass at the Bamenda Airport, the Pope prayed for peace and forgiveness, as well as for the spirit of reconciliation, to all return to the war torn Anglophone Regions, that is, the Northwest and Southwest Regions. In fact it was not only a message limited to two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon, but rather to the entire country, as the Pope delivered the message of peace, forgiveness , reconciliation and unity wherever he went in the country.
But it was observed that this message was interpreted differently in different places. In Bamenda where the Pope visited, the message of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and unity, was understood by many be a a call for an end to the very bloody armed conflict between Government troops and separatist fighters in the two Anglophone Regions. It is an armed conflict in which civilians have been bearing the brunt. The armed conflict has taken away the lives of thousands of civilians, and hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced, Also, most of the people (thousands) that ran away from the war, and crossed the border into neighbouring Nigeria, are still living in refugee camps in that country, waiting for peace to return, for them to return home.
How The Pope’s Message Was Interpreted By Many In Douala
Meanwhile, when Pope Louis XIV visited Douala on Friday, April 17 and prayed for peace as well as called for forgiveness, reconciliation and unity, many people in Douala interpreted that as the Pope’s reference to the recent post-election violence (October 20205), That is, the violence that rocked the nation’s economic capital, Douala, and other towns in the country like Garoua, and Dschang, following the October 12, 2025 presidential election, which supporters of the FSNC leader and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, claimed he won. In the nation’s capital, Douala, where Issa Tchiroma Bakary beat the incumbent, Paul Biya, in the official result, many people interpreted the Pope’s prayer for peace and his call for forgiveness and reconciliation, as being a call for the Biya Government to release all those who are still in detention in Cameroon in connection to the October 12, 2025 presidential election, in the name of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.
It should be noted that a few days before the Pope arrived Cameroon, a group handed over a petition to the Archbishop of Douala, Mgr Samuel Kleda, to pass over to the Pope, in relation to the post –election arrests and detentions.
The Main Question After The Pope’s Vist
Meanwhile, as a prominent world’s religious leader, visiting Pope Leo XIV delivered the right message he was supposed to deliver in Cameroon at this time. The question many people are now asking, after the Pope’s departure, is how President Biya and his men will react to the Pope’s message for peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and unity. In other words, will Biya and his men show humility and good faith by reacting positively, that is, with positive and concrete actions, or they will, as is their ‘tradition’, ignore the Pope’s message after his departure?
It was observed that in the two Anglophone Regions (Northwest and Southwest), many people bubbled with the high hope that with the coming of the Pope, the Anglophone Crisis, especially the armed conflict, will finally come to the end. The hope was in fact seemingly exaggerated or blown out of proportion.
It should be noted that the two camps, that is, the Government and the separatists, have in the long period of conflict, never sat down for dialogue, or better still, for a peace talk. But as the Pope said in a speech at Cameroon’s Presidential Palace in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, on April 15, shortly after he arrive Cameroon, while peace in the country is everyone’s responsibility, it is first and foremost the responsibility of the civil authority of the country, that is, the Government.
Will The Biya Regime React Positively To The Pope’s Message?
Meanwhile as aforementioned, the question in many minds now, is definitely what will happen after the Pope’s visit to Cameroon. Will the Biya Government react in good faith to Pope’s message of peace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity, by finally accepting an inclusive dialogue to end the armed conflict with the separatists? It should be noted that a call for reconciliation, does not mean two camps that were in a conflict, suddenly jumping up to say it is now over, and that they have forgiven each other, and reconciled with each other. That is fake reconciliation. Real or genuine reconciliation between two camps in a conflict means sitting down on a dialogue table for an honest dialogue, settling their disputes with each camp admitting its errors or where it went wrong, and apologizing to the other camp. Each forgiving each other for wrongs that were committed and then, the two camps embrace each other and turn a new page.
After the Pope’s visit, many people of the two Anglophone Regions (Northwest and Southwest), are in high hope that President Biya and his men will follow the message of Pope Leo XIV for Peace, Forgiveness , Reconciliation and Unity, and finally hold genuine peace talks with the separatists for real peace to return to the two regions. That however remains to be seen. Since this crisis unfortunately sparked off and soon escalated, there have been calls from several counties, international organizations and institutions, and from world personalities like the UN Secretary General, for the Cameroon Government to try to resolve the crisis by holding dialogue with the separatists. But the regime has been consistent in either ignoring or rejecting the calls.
This time is even quite complicated. It is no secret that President Biya who is today 93 years old, has been naturally weakened by age, and appears not to be fully in control again. Things now depend mostly on his close collaborators or those around him like the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and the Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency, Mvondo Ayolo.
