The pope will also visit Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea during his 11-day trip to the continent.By AFP and ReutersPublished On 13 Apr 202613 Apr 2026|Updated: 30 minutes agoUpdated: 30 minutes agoPope Leo XIV has begun a landmark visit to Algeria in the first trip to the Muslim-majority country by a pontiff.The United States-born pope arrived in the capital Algiers at around 09:00 GMT on Monday, an AFP news agency journalist travelling aboard the papal plane said.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listHe is expected to pay tribute to victims of Algeria’s war of independence from France (1954-1962) later in the day.The 70-year-old pontiff is on an ambitious 11-day tour of four countries in Africa, urging global leaders to address the needs of the continent where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live, according to Vatican statistics.Algeria, however, is an overwhelmingly Muslim country with fewer than 10,000 Catholics among its population of some 48 million people. This is the first time it will host a Catholic pope.The trip is aimed at continuing to “build bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds”, the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco, told AFP.After two days in Algeria, Leo will go to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea in a whirlwind tour of 11 cities and towns, traversing nearly 18,000km (11,185 miles) over 18 flights. The three sub-Saharan nations the pope is visiting have populations where more than half identify as Catholic.The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran, has made only one major overseas trip since being elected last May, visiting Turkiye and Lebanon in November and December. He visited Monaco in March.Pope to deliver 25 speeches in 11 daysLeo’s tour is the 24th by a pope to Africa since the late 1960 …
