Pope Francis prays for the return of peace in Cameroon

At the end of the Regina Coeli prayer on Sunday, April 24, Pope Francis asked for the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that God would grant true and lasting peace to Cameroon.

The conflict between the government and separatists in the Anglophone minority regions began in 2017 and has left more than 6,000 people dead.

Five years of conflict in Cameroon, which has pitted separatist regions against government armed forces, has not left the Pontiff unmoved. The war in Ukraine, Francis has explained on several occasions, should not make us forget that other situations of conflict in the world cause innocent victims every day.

According to the UN, 2.2 million of the four million people in the Anglophone regions are in need of humanitarian assistance. According to crisisgroup.org, Cameroon is in the midst of two major violent conflicts, but it also faces growing ethnic and political tensions.