Bombay Durpun - Pope Leo XIV calls for 'hope' before 100,000 faithful in Angola

Leo flew to Portuguese-speaking Angola on Saturday, the third leg of a whirlwind four-nation African tour on which he has condemned corruption and the plunder of the continent's resources -- and had a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump.

Around 100,000 people attended the pontiff's first mass in Angola at Kilamba, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Luanda, the Vatican said, citing local authorities.

The pope encouraged the crowd "to look to the future with hope" in a "new beginning" for the nation still scarred by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

It was possible "to build a country where old divisions are overcome forever, where hatred and violence disappear, where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing", Leo said.

After arriving on Saturday from Cameroon, Leo went straight into an event with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and other officials, where he spoke out against the "suffering" caused by poverty and the rampant exploitation of natural resources -- continuing the assertive tone of his 11-day tour.

- 'Call leaders to account' -

Angola is one of Africa's top oil producers and is rich in resources such as diamonds.

However, economic disparities in the country are stark, and around a third of the population of 36.6 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

The population is largely young, with an average age of 23, according to official statistics.

Patricio Musanga, 32, said he attended the mass looking for encouragement for young people, with a lack of work making many seek better opportunities in Western countries.

"We are very rich in natural resources but... there is a glaring inequality between those who live well and the others," said Musanga, wearing a white cap and a T-shirt showing the pope's image.

"There's a concentration of wealth in the hands of very few, and of course the war just aggravated the situation," said Father Pedro Chingandu, a Catholic priest who had come from the eastern province of Moxico.

"We need real democracy and the redistribution of wealth and justice," Chingandu told AFP.

- Slave-route shrine -

After Kilamba, the pope is to travel 110 kilometres by helicopter to the town of Muxima, Angola's most venerated pilgrimage site, where a 300-year-old church overlooks a river that was once a major slave trading route.

The church, with a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately as "Mama Muxima", draws roughly two million pilgrims a year.

It was built by Angola's Portuguese colonial settlers to baptise slaves before they were transported down the Kwanza River to the Atlantic and on to the Americas, according to religious leaders.

The government has embarked on a massive multi-million-euro project to build a basilica in the town, which has drawn some criticism about the government's spending priorities.

Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree in Luanda and other centres in July last year, when around 30 people were killed in what critics said was a heavy-handed police response.

Analysts said the unrest signalled dissatisfaction with Lourenco's socialist MPLA party, which has held power since independence in 1975.

- Regrets Trump spat -

Leo started his African tour in Algeria on Monday, then headed to Cameroon.

He told journalists on the flight to Angola he regretted that a war of words with Trump -- who labelled him "weak" after he called for an end to the Middle East war -- had overshadowed some of the trip.

It is "not in my interest at all" to debate the US leader, said the first American pontiff.

From Angola, Leo will travel to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of an 18,000-kilometre journey across the continent.

L.Apte--BD