Fast facts on the 4 countries of Pope Leo’s Africa trip

From April 13 to 23, 2026, Pope Leo will visit four countries in Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. Here are some key facts about each of these countries.

This trip will be the first-ever visit of a pope to Algeria.

Basic facts

The country is located in northern Africa, has a long Mediterranean coastline, and is the largest country on the continent. It covers nearly a million square miles (roughly the size of Alaska and Texas combined).

Arabic and the Berber language (Tamazight) are its official languages.

Religious panorama

Today, the vast majority of the population is Muslim. However, between the 4th century, when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, and the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, this land had a significant Christian population. Notably, it was the homeland of St. Augustine of Hippo (the city now called Annaba). Under Muslim rule, the Christian presence was greatly reduced and persecuted.

From 1830-1962, France colonized Algeria and reintroduced Catholicism. It was during this time that St. Charles de Foucauld (canonized in 2022), a Frenchman, lived in Algeria. He lived alongside Muslims giving a simple testimony of humility and charity until a group of rebels killed him in 1916.

After Algeria won its independence in 1962, most Christians fled the country. Christians who remained once again faced persecution. During a civil war in the 1990s, seven Trappist monks living in an abbey in Tibhirine were martyred (1996). Pope Francis beatified them in 2018.

The situation of Christians in Algeria has somewhat improved since then, as the Pope’s visit would suggest.

A small Catholic population gaining visibility

We can hope that the tiny Catholic community (about 0.02% of the population, or about 9,000 people) will have more visibility and be seen in a more positive light after this event.

Basic facts

Cameroon is located on the South Atlantic coast of Africa, in the corner where West Africa and Central Africa meet. It has an area of almost 184,000 square miles (20,000 square miles bigger than California).

French and English are both official languages.

Religious panorama

It’s much more religiously diverse than Algeria. Roughly 29% of the population is Catholic, 22% Protestant, and 20% Muslim. Traditional African religions dominated the area until the 19th century when both Christianity and Islam were more introduced on a significant scale.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Germany, Britain, and France all briefly colonized parts of what is now Cameroon. This promoted agricultural development and increased connections with Europe. The country achieved independence in 1960. Although the country has experienced some internal strife and political turmoil, it has had the same president, Paul Biya, since 1982. For this reason, despite holding elections (with disputed results), it’s considered an autocracy.

A future saint?

Cameroon doesn’t yet have any canonized saints, although it does have one venerable: a priest named Simon Mpeke, popularly known as Baba Simon.

Basic facts

The country of Angola is found in southwestern Africa on the South Atlantic coast. At more than 481,000 square miles in size, it’s roughly three times the size of California.

Its official language is Portuguese.

Religious panorama

Angola is around 50% Catholic and 30% Protestant. The first Catholic missionaries arrived from Portugal in 1490, two years before Columbus landed in America. Its king converted to Christianity shortly afterwards. In 1575, the Portuguese established the colony of Luanda on what is now Angolan territory. The country was heavily involved in the slave trade until the mid-19th century.

The modern borders of the country were determined in 1891. Angola became independent in 1975, leading to a protracted civil war that only ended definitively in 2002.

The Catholic Church’s influence

Throughout the civil war and subsequent reconstruction, the Catholic Church has played an important role. The bishops continue to be important mediators in social and political matters, and the Church is an important provider of health care and education.

Basic facts

This country is a southern neighbor of Cameroon, and is considerably smaller in size: less than 11,000 square miles, or roughly the size of Massachusetts.

Spanish, French, and Portuguese are official languages, with it being the only country in Africa with Spanish as an official language.

Religious panorama

Spain ruled this land as a colony from 1856 to 1968, and missionaries arrived at roughly the same time. The country is now around 70% Catholic.

Like Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea is nominally a democracy, but in practice is a totalitarian state. It has been governed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema since he took power in 1979 through a coup d’etat against his own uncle. The president is nominally Catholic.

Although the country is rich in oil, the profits stay in the hands of a small elite, while seven out of ten inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day.

The cathedral of Santa Isabel, a “relative” of Sagrada Familia?

Although it is unconfirmed, there is a long-standing rumor that Antoni Gaudí, the famous architect of Sagrada Familia in Spain, may have been an informal consultant for the construction of the cathedral of Malabo (the old capital of Equatorial Guinea).

The neo-Gothic church was designed by a Spanish Claretian priest, Fr. Lluís Sagarra I Llauradó and is named after St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The construction began in 1897 and ended in 1916.