Pope Leo XIV will arrive in Cameroon from April 15 to 18 and will be greeted in Bamenda by Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea, a 60-year-old church leader who has become one of the most visible Catholic voices in the country’s English-speaking regions. The meeting will bring together two men who worked closely during the 2023-24 Synod on Synodality, where Nkea served on the 16-member Ordinary Council and the future pope, then Cardinal Robert Prevost, took part in every phase of the gathering.
Nkea has led the northern Archdiocese of Bamenda since the beginning of 2020, overseeing the only ecclesiastical province covering Cameroon’s English-speaking regions and a flock of more than 600,000 faithful. Widely regarded at home as a gifted preacher and energetic pastor, he is also known for a rare public profile among Catholic leaders in the area.
The visit comes as Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict remains unresolved. The crisis began in 2016 with peaceful protests over marginalization of the English-speaking minority, then escalated into armed fighting between government forces and separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions. Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, leaving behind a long-running humanitarian emergency and a stalemate on the ground.
That backdrop helps explain why Nkea’s role matters beyond church protocol. He has pushed for dialogue and reconciliation, met political leaders, supported humanitarian assistance and urged Cameroonians to stop hiding behind violence and take responsibility for peace. Local media has credited him for those efforts, and he works closely with Caritas to help meet basic needs. He has also said, “I am ready to give my life — not for separatists, not for the government!” and warned that “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” In another plea, he said, “Please, they’re your own people. Don’t touch your own people!”
Born Aug. 29, 1965, in Widikum in Northwest Cameroon, Nkea was ordained a priest for the western Diocese of Buea in 1992. Pope Francis appointed him coadjutor bishop of Mamfe in 2013, he became bishop there in 2014, and he later served as apostolic administrator of Mamfe from 2019 to 2022. Promoted to archbishop of Bamenda in February 2020, he took the motto “In Spirit and in Truth.” For Leo, the Bamenda greeting will open a visit to a country where the church remains a major public force — and where the search for peace is still the most urgent work of all.
