Pope Leo XIV Welcome to land of many troubles!.

What many say could be near to what the Vatican understands of today’s Cameroon could be viewed in the parchments and declarations of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, about the country in the last years of his papacy.

But today, amid the fanfare and huge government and Christian mobilisation to welcome the Holy Father, for many, Pope Leo XIV come to a land of many troubles. 

As he goes about discussing with authorities and listening to people on the country’s challenges, many say the Cameroon of today is a Pandora box, with troubles which the Supreme Pontiff must be firm in pushing for efforts to resolve them.

Analysts say beyond the whitewashed streets, new flags, makeshift structures, sweet speeches and convincing assurances that he will encounter as he traverses Cameroon, the Pope must be aware he is rather walking on egg shell.

Cameroon in 2026, many are saying, is like a patient burdened by diseases, hoping to get healed as the Holy Father is present in the country. 

The country’s soul, for many, has remained unsettled for over a decade, as its challenges continue to increase, with some even fearing that it is nearing Armageddon of sorts.

Critics of the regime say the Cameroon, the head of the Catholic Church is visiting is one wherein those governing are saying everything is fine while the governed continue to cry, pointing to general disarray in things that are rather supposed to make Cameroonians proud of their nation.

From the time Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2009, till date, Cameroon has lost its standing as an Island of peace. 

It is a nation some are saying is combusting socially, politically, economically and spiritually, with potential to even overwhelm the Holy Father with its myriad challenges.

Troubles erupt, snowballing 17 years since last Papal visit

When Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2009, Cameroon was recovering from the hunger strike of February 2008, that almost paralysed the nation, plus the amendment of the Constitution to remove Presidential term limits.

Outside that, what Cameroon is today in terms of troubles is nowhere near what its morphology showed in 2009. 17 years on, another Holy Father is in the country, now bedeviled by troubles from all angles, among them the Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West Regions, that is threatening the very foundation of the country.

It is a historical problem that is as old as the country’s independence and reunification. The Anglophone question gained public steam in the last quarter of 2016, switching into an armed conflict in 2017. Ten years on, communities have been ruined and thousands have died.

By 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI was visiting Cameroon, such narratives were nonexistent in Cameroon’s records. Its pride as a nation was intact but today, the Anglophone crisis is still fresh, weighing on all aspects of national life. 

Thus, while the Pope has come principally to pray for the Christian community and return to Rome, one of the country’s most pressing challenges, the Anglophone crisis, is now a burden he may have to sort solutions for, before leaving the country. 

As at the time organisations were still cataloguing burnt communities owing to the crisis, the number had nearly clocked 300. Across the Far North Region, the Boko Haram terrorist sect has since 2014, been a major source of headache. 

Communities have been turned upside down. Albeit traces of recovery, most communities in the Far Region are still deserted, while threats of incursion continue to loom.

When Pope Benedict XVI came visiting in 2009, Biya had cleared the way for what many critics say is his life presidency project. He got re-elected in 2011, and sailed through. But the political atmosphere has not been the same since the 2018 and 2025 Presidential election.

Cameroon’s political climate, for many, remains largely unsettled, since its last two Presidential elections. In 2018, Biya was declared winner but the leader and candidate of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, claimed victory, opting for street protests that put the entire nation on its toes. Several persons were arrested and thrown in jail. Some were later freed, but reports hold many are still languishing behind bars. 

The same script played out in the last quarter of 2025. Paul Biya was declared winner of the October 12, 2025, election but with one of his lowest scores of over 53 percent of votes cast. The person who came second, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, also claimed victory, putting the country on the precipice.

Thousands of persons took to the streets in several towns and cities. Several were shot dead while Tchiroma, a former minister and Government Spokesman, who resigned to contest the election, went on exile. Hundreds of those arrested after the October 12, 2025 Presidential election, are also still in jail.

Thus, from the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, to the last two Presidential elections, hundreds of persons have either been jailed while others remain in pretrial detention. The situation has seen the opposition lamenting.

Opposition grievances ignored

Still within the political space, records hold that most opposition concerns in recent times have fallen on deaf ears. The opposition, has for years, been clamouring for revision of the Electoral Code, to adjust certain shortcomings and a review of the country’s Constitution.

Yet, weeks before His Holiness’ arrival, Parliament met in Congress and rather removed what critics say, was a guardrail in the Electoral Code; for the holding of municipal elections and re-introducing the post of Vice President, thus giving the President the power to appoint the country’s Vice President. 

The development has troubled the nation’s political scene, with grievances emanating even from the country’s diaspora. 

While its internal challenges are compounding, Cameroon is also facing pressure with the influx of refugees from neighouring Central African Republic, CAR, and Boko Haram-infested northern Nigeria. 

Broken social services

If the political situation of the country is headlining its troubles, Cameroon, for some, is a country where despite huge government investments, dry taps, prolonged blackouts, broken roads and deplorable health services have become a tradition.

Most road accidents across the country have been blamed on a terrible or nonexistent road network. 

They are reminding His Holiness that even most of the roads he will be driven around on have just been worked overnight with things to return to default on his return to the Vatican.

Corruption, bad governance, rising urban insecurity….

Other troubles that continue to keep Cameroon unsettled, others are stating, include bad governance, widespread corruption, rising urban insecurity, femicide and infanticide. 

The country is in the shadows of governance that has remained questionable in several circles.

It is a country where people have been ministers on the same spot for 21 years, money allocated for several projects, but are never realised, women and children being killed under very disheartening circumstances; with investigations always opened but results rarely known to the public.

When it comes to young people, they are also inexistent in the running of national life. Their massive exodus, with many perishing in the desert in quest for greener pastures abroad, has been blamed on the bleak future young people perceive at home.

Biya’s promises still hanging 

Even with renewed promises to give young people a place in leadership and the running of the country, while campaigning in 2025, it is over five months, and nothing has happened.

During his traditional end-of-year address to the nation, on December 31, 2025, the Head of State also announced a government “in the coming days” to rework his entire leadership architecture but nothing has also happened months on. 

In the Cameroon of 2026, critics say nothing is working, except for the roller-coaster preparations to give an image of things being in order as it is the case with the visit of the Holy Father. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3761 of Wednesday April 15, 2026