Pope hails peacemaking efforts of Christian, Muslim leaders in Cameroon
April 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV traveled today from Cameroon’s capital of Yaoundé to Bamenda (video), where he praised the efforts of local Christian and Muslim leaders to promote peace amid the Anglophone Crisis, an armed conflict that began in 2017.
Today is the fourth day of the Pontiff’s apostolic journey to four African nations, and his second day in Cameroon. At a meeting for peace inside and outside St. Joseph Cathedral in Bamenda (video), Pope Leo praised the efforts of local Christian and Muslim leaders to promote peace.
“I am here to proclaim peace,” Pope Leo said. “Yet I find it is you who are proclaiming peace to me, and to the entire world.”
“As one of you observed, the crisis impacting these regions of Cameroon has brought Christian and Muslim communities closer than ever before,” the Pope continued. “Indeed, your religious leaders have come together to establish a Movement for Peace, through which they seek to mediate between the opposing sides.”
Pope Leo commented:
I wish this would happen in so many other places of the world. Your witness, your work for peace can be a model for the whole world! Jesus told us: Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. Yes, my dear sisters and brothers, you who hunger and thirst for justice, who are poor, merciful, meek, and pure of heart, you who have wept—you are the light of the world! (cf. Mt 5:3-14)
The Pontiff then condemned the “masters of war.”
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet a lifetime is often not enough to rebuild,” Pope Leo said. “They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
“Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death,” he continued. “It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience. We must make a decisive change of course—a true conversion—that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.
Pope Leo added:
The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters! They are the descendants of Abraham, as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Let us look into each other’s eyes: we are this immense people!
Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbor as our brother and as our sister. We do not choose our brothers and sisters: we simply must accept one another! We are one family, inhabiting the same home: this wonderful planet that ancient cultures have cared for across millennia.
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