Star Metro - Pope arrives in Angola on Africa tour overshadowed by Trump

Leo flew into the oil-rich country from Cameroon, where he ended his visit with a huge public mass.

After landing at an airport in the capital Luanda, he travelled in his popemobile to meet President Joao Lourenco with hundreds of cheering and waving people lining his route.

On the plane to the southern African country, Leo told journalists that he regretted remarks he had made during his tour had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump, insisting he had no interest in debating the US leader.

An example was a speech about "tyrants" ransacking the world that he delivered in Cameroon on Thursday on the second leg of the trip, he said.

The remarks had been written well before Trump's "comment on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting", he said.

"And yet it was perceived as if I were trying to start a new debate with the president, which doesn't interest me at all," Leo said.

"Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary trying to interpret what has been said," he said.

Leo had blasted "tyrants" while on a high-security visit to Cameroon's northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicentre of a nearly decade-long English-speaking separatist insurgency that has killed thousands.

The remarks were interpreted by the US media in particular as a reference to Trump.

But Leo insisted that "there's been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects".

Trump had said on April 12 he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo", and accused his fellow American of "toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon".

He later doubled down with a post on Truth Social, saying: "Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy."

- 'Courage to change' -

The US-born pope concluded his three-day visit to Cameroon with an open-air mass at Yaounde airport before 200,000 people.

In his homily delivered in French, he thanked the people of Cameroon and urged the crowd to have "the courage to change habits and structures", in a country ruled with an iron fist by 93-year-old Paul Biya since 1982.

Throughout his 11-day four-nation Africa visit, which started in Algeria, he has delivered pointed warnings against corruption, the plunder of the continent's resources and the dangers of artificial intelligence.

They are warnings that are likely to strike a chord in oil-rich Angola.

Despite its wealth of resources, around a third of the population of 36.6 million people lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.

The economy is heavily dependent on oil, leaving it exposed to price fluctuations, while corruption is reportedly rampant.

Around 15 million people in the Portuguese-speaking country, about 44 percent of the population, identify as Catholic.

Leo is the third pontiff to visit the country, after John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009.

- 'Needs of the youth' -

"There is a lot of suffering, a lot of poverty in Angola. I hope the pope will see with his own eyes the needs of the youth here," said Antonio Masaidi, a 33-year-old engineer.

On Sunday, Leo will celebrate a giant open-air mass in Kilamba on Luanda's outskirts.

In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to the village of Muxima, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Luanda, home to a 16th-century church that has become one of southern Africa's most important pilgrimage sites.

Leo will then fly to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of his whirlwind 18,000-kilometre tour.

L.Girard--SMC