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As the third stop of his ambitious four-nation tour of Africa gets underway, Pope Leo XIV has wrapped up his visit to Cameroon, leaving behind a wave of joyful devotion and a clear call for collective action to lift marginalized communities across the continent. On Saturday, the pontiff celebrated an open-air Mass at Yaounde’s international airport, drawing tens of thousands of worshippers — including 93-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest sitting head of state. Accounts from the scene describe a vibrant, crowded gathering, where even worshippers with limited mobility were carried to the service in wheelbarrows by loving family members, a testament to the deep impact of the pontiff’s visit on the majority-Christian nation.

Cameroon, a former French colony where Catholics make up roughly one-third of the population, is just the second stop on Leo’s African journey. Throughout his time in the country, the pope centered his message on two core themes: encouraging disillusioned young people to hold onto hope for the future, and calling out wealthy and powerful elites for exploiting the continent’s land and people for private gain. In his final homily in Yaounde, delivered in French, Leo framed respect for human dignity as the non-negotiable foundation of a functional society.

“For this reason, every community has the obligation to create and sustain structures of solidarity and mutual aid in which, when faced with crises — be they social, political, medical or economic — everyone can give and receive assistance according to their own capacity and needs,” he told the gathered crowd. He doubled down on earlier criticisms of systemic graft, denouncing the “chains of corruption” that block inclusive development across the continent, and condemning the “handful of tyrants” who fuel conflict and exploitation that leaves millions of Africans trapped in poverty.

After closing the Cameroon leg of his tour, the pontiff departed Saturday for Luanda, the capital of southwestern Angola, where his visit will confront the nation’s layered, often painful history on multiple fronts. Angola won its independence from Portugal in 1975, but almost immediately descended into a 27-year civil war that only ended in 2002. Fought as a Cold War proxy conflict — with the U.S. and apartheid South Africa backing one faction, and the Soviet Union and Cuba supporting the other — the war claimed an estimated 500,000 lives and left deep physical and social scars that persist today.

Today, Angola is one of Africa’s most resource-rich nations: it ranks as the continent’s fourth-largest oil producer, among the top 20 global oil producers, the world’s third-biggest diamond exporter, and holds substantial reserves of gold and other in-demand critical minerals. Yet despite this abundant natural wealth, 2023 World Bank data shows more than 30% of Angola’s 38 million people survive on less than $2.15 per day. Much of this inequality is tied to decades of systemic corruption: former long-time president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the nation for 38 years until 2017, was accused of siphoning an estimated $24 billion in public funds — most from oil revenues — to his family and inner circle, while ordinary Angolans faced widespread poverty. Current President Joao Lourenco, who took power after dos Santos stepped down, has made anti-corruption campaigns and recovery of stolen public funds a central policy pledge, but critics argue his actions have largely targeted political opponents to consolidate power, leaving deep-rooted systemic graft unaddressed.

For many ordinary Angolans, the pope’s visit carries expectations of messages that speak directly to the nation’s ongoing struggles. “I would like to hear a message of peace, a message of reconciliation,” Luanda resident Sergio Jose told reporters. “I would also like to hear good political messages and I would also like to hear that the pope would also talk about the upcoming elections in Angola.”

Observers expect the pontiff to echo the themes of anti-corruption and equitable development he laid out in Cameroon during his time in Angola. The most anticipated event of his visit will be a trip Sunday to Muxima, a coastal town south of Luanda that is home to one of Angola’s most important Catholic shrines, the Church of Our Lady of Muxima. Built by Portuguese colonizers in the late 16th century as part of a fortress complex, the site was a central hub of the transatlantic slave trade, a tangible reminder of how the spread of Catholicism was intertwined with the colonization and exploitation of the African continent. As a former Portuguese colony, Angola was the epicenter of the transatlantic slave trade: more than 5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic from Angolan ports, more than from any other region on the continent.

The visit to Muxima carries unique personal meaning for Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pope in history. Genealogical research has confirmed the pontiff has both Black and white ancestors, including people who were held as enslaved people and people who owned enslaved people. He will pray the Rosary at the shrine, which has been a popular pilgrimage site since reports of an apparition of the Virgin Mary there in 1833.

This report includes contributions from Imray, reporting from Cape Town, South Africa. The Associated Press’ religion coverage receives support through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains sole responsibility for all content.

In a major milestone for the Donald Trump administration’s hard-line campaign against unauthorized mass migration, the first group of 15 South American migrants expelled from the United States has touched down in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, marking the start of a controversial third-country deportation agreement between the two nations.

The plane carrying the deportees landed at Kinshasa’s N’djili International Airport in the early hours of Friday. While the Congolese government released only limited details about the group in its official statement, an anonymous airport source speaking to the BBC confirmed most of the 15 are Colombian and Peruvian citizens — making them third-country nationals, meaning they hold no citizenship in either the United States or DR Congo.

Kinshasa has moved quickly to clarify the terms of the arrangement, emphasizing that the migrants’ stay in the central African nation is strictly temporary. The Congolese government also explicitly stated Washington is covering all costs related to the migrants’ reception, support, and care during their stay, and that the deal does not represent a permanent relocation scheme or an outsourcing of U.S. migration policy. When the agreement first came to light earlier this month, Congolese officials framed the decision to accept the deportees as aligned with the country’s commitments to human dignity, migrant rights protection, and international solidarity. Migrants are being admitted under short-stay permits that comply with DR Congo’s existing foreign entry and residence laws, the government added.

This deportation operation is part of a broader, long-running push by the Trump administration to expand third-country deportations as a core tool of its immigration crackdown. Prior to this arrangement with DR Congo, the U.S. has already sent expelled migrants to other African nations including Ghana, South Sudan, and Eswatini. Since Trump took office in January 2025, dozens of migrants have been relocated to third countries under this policy. A minority report from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has raised new questions about the cost of the program, estimating that the Trump administration has likely spent more than $40 million (£30 million) on third-country deportations as of January 2026. The report notes the full total expenditure remains unknown, but confirms the U.S. has disbursed more than $32 million in direct funding to five partner countries: Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, and Palau.

When approached for comment, the U.S. State Department declined to discuss diplomatic communications with foreign governments, but reaffirmed the administration’s unwavering commitment to ending illegal mass migration and strengthening U.S. border security.

Beyond the migration deal, the U.S. maintains multiple overlapping policy priorities with DR Congo. Washington is currently negotiating a critical minerals agreement with Kinshasa that would grant American companies greater access to DR Congo’s extensive reserves of strategically important metals, including cobalt, tantalum, lithium, and copper — all key inputs for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy technology. The Trump administration also previously brokered a landmark peace deal between DR Congo and neighboring Rwanda to resolve years of conflict in eastern DR Congo, though full implementation of the agreement has remained an ongoing challenge.

Most recently, following a new round of peace talks in Switzerland mediated by the U.S. and Qatar, both the Congolese government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group have announced key confidence-building steps ahead of a permanent ceasefire. The two sides committed to allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian aid, protecting civilian populations and critical infrastructure, and launching formal monitoring of a permanent ceasefire. Negotiating delegates from both sides expressed cautious encouragement over the progress made toward ending the years-long conflict. Rwanda has consistently denied international evidence of its support for M23, claiming any military presence near the border is a defensive measure to counter threats from armed groups based in DR Congo.

This report includes additional contributions from journalist Richard Kagoe.

As conflict continues to drive thousands of Sudanese civilians across the border into South Sudan, a rapidly escalating water crisis has pushed already vulnerable displaced populations to the brink of survival in the remote Upper Nile State settlement of Chemedi Payam.

Long before the first light of day touches the arid landscape of Chemedi Payam, women and children clutching empty plastic buckets gather in long lines, waiting for water deliveries that may never materialize. For many of these displaced people, the daily fight for clean water consumes every waking hour, pushing other basic needs like meals to the background. “We wake up at 3:00 am local time and come here to look for water,” explained Amna Ibrahim, one of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled cross-border conflict to seek safety in South Sudan. “We haven’t even had breakfast because we came early to fetch water.”

Today, Chemedi is home to roughly 58,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees fleeing neighboring violence. What makes this crisis particularly stark is that the settlement sits in close proximity to the Nile, one of the continent’s largest and most reliable water sources. Aid workers and local administrators emphasize that the shortage does not stem from a lack of available water, but from a catastrophic gap in critical infrastructure needed to safely extract, purify and distribute water to the scattered communities that make up the settlement.

Most functional boreholes in the area are out of service, water storage capacity is drastically limited, and no large-scale water treatment systems exist to serve the growing population. Seasonal water collection points dry up entirely during extended dry seasons, leaving residents with two bad options: rely on sporadic water trucking deliveries, or turn to unsafe, unregulated water sources. For most households, consistent access to clean water depends entirely on aid-funded tanker operations, but humanitarian groups warn these life-sustaining services are being choked off by crippling funding shortfalls. “If the tanker doesn’t come, we don’t know what we will do,” said Zainab Yasin, another Sudanese refugee living in the settlement.

Local authorities note that the sudden, rapid influx of thousands of people fleeing Sudan’s ongoing violence has completely overwhelmed the region’s already overstretched water infrastructure, which was inadequate to serve local populations even before the refugee crisis began. Beyond the immediate threat of dehydration and hunger, the lack of reliable clean water is undermining life-saving critical services, particularly for malnourished children and new and expecting mothers.

At a primary healthcare clinic supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its implementing partners, medical teams treat dozens of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition every day, alongside hundreds of pregnant and breastfeeding women. “Water is a major gap in Chemedi. Without it, our nutrition services cannot function properly,” said Jansuk Alex Sworo, a nutrition specialist working in the settlement. Sworo explained that the ongoing funding crisis for water services has left both the clinic and surrounding communities in a constant state of crisis. Currently, aid groups haul water 80 kilometers from the town of Renk to Chemedi, but this stopgap measure is financially unsustainable under current funding levels.

With no other options available, large numbers of residents have been forced to turn to unsafe water sources, including untreated water from shallow unregulated wells and seasonal holding ponds that dry up within weeks of the dry season starting. This puts the entire population at high risk of outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid.

The impact of the crisis extends far beyond health outcomes, tearing apart access to education for refugee children. At the local primary school, 650 children are enrolled, most of them refugees, but classes are routinely cut short as early as 11 a.m. because of the lack of water for students and staff. “We have an issue with water here, and that is why we release learners at 11:00 am,” said head teacher Awadia Paulo Adowk. Some families have pulled their children out of school entirely, as every able family member is needed to join the daily search for water. “Sometimes we get water, and after two days, we don’t have anything to drink,” said Rasham Mohamed Sheikh Al-Din, a mother of eight whose children no longer attend classes regularly.

Local government leaders and international aid workers are now urgently calling for expanded global financial and logistical support to address the growing unmet water needs of Chemedi’s vulnerable population, warning that without immediate intervention the crisis could quickly turn deadly.