On 16 April, as part of his first trip to Africa, Pope Leo XIV is set to deliver a message of peace and reconciliation in Bamenda, the largest city in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions, which have been embroiled in a nine-year insurgency seeking separation from the country’s eight Francophone regions.

The announcement of the papal visit has triggered strong reactions. Some of the secessionist factions have declared a ceasefire for the duration of his stay. Yaoundé has tightened security and accelerated maintenance work in and around Bamenda, including at the long-abandoned Bafut airport, where Leo XIV will celebrate a mass for peace on 16 April.

The Catholic Church has made repeated efforts to find a negotiated solution to the Anglophone conflict. Soon after Anglophone protests broke out in November 2016, bishops from the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province sent a memorandum to President Paul Biya proposing talks to resolve the dispute. In 2019, when the insurgency entered its second year, the late Cardinal Christian Tumi, then archbishop of Douala, mobilised an array of Anglophone voices in support of a conference to map pathways out of the conflict. The government refused to approve the initiative, but it felt compelled to offer an alternative, in the shape of a national dialogue it organised later that year. In 2020, sixteen Catholic bishops from around the world released an open letter urging Biya to join proposed Swiss-led talks.

The conflict has dragged on, however, causing over 7,000 deaths, displacing a million people and depriving 600,000 students of schooling at the peak of disruption. Over that time, several mediators have given up on dialogue efforts. But Anglophone faith leaders defied the trend, resuming quiet diplomacy in 2024 and seeking the Vatican’s assistance. In March, Ghanaian-born Cardinal Peter Turkson called on Cameroonians to present the pope with a peace and reconciliation plan.

Pope Leo XIV arrives at a moment of deep uncertainty for Cameroon. The world’s oldest sitting president at 93, Biya has been at the helm for over four decades. A crackdown on protests following a disputed presidential vote in October 2025 left 39 dead and over 2,000 detained, according to civil society groups. After years of silence about the question of succession, Biya is suddenly taking steps to shape the era after his departure. On 4 April, a parliament dominated by the ruling party amended the constitution to create the post of vice president. Whoever Biya appoints to this role is likely to succeed him. Many Cameroonians hope the papal visit can help bring a broader political reset.

Biya could treat Pope Leo XIV’s visit as an opportunity, under international scrutiny, to signal a shift in his Anglophone policy. Vatican officials say the most meaningful gesture would be for the president to offer his support for a negotiated solution. Yaoundé could use renewed engagement with the Vatican to extend a formal invitation to separatist leaders for talks, a move that could be one of Biya’s most consequential as he prepares to usher in a new leadership.