Overview
- Leo XIV arrived in Algiers on Monday, becoming the first pope to visit Algeria.
- During the visit’s opening day, two suicide bombings in Blida killed at least two police officers and injured civilians, ending Algeria’s longest lull without such attacks since 2017.
- He met President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, visited Algiers’ Great Mosque, and honored 19 Christians killed in the 1990s conflict, with a pilgrimage to Saint Augustine’s seat in Annaba set for Tuesday.
- The itinerary moves next to Cameroon for a peace gathering in Bamenda in the country’s anglophone conflict, then to Angola, and to Equatorial Guinea for a planned prison visit.
- The Vatican frames the journey as both pastoral and diplomatic in a region where Catholic numbers have surged to about 290 million, now more than in Europe.