Bombay Durpun - Pope to lead huge mass in Cameroon city hit by post-vote protest deaths

Many of the faithful had travelled far or arrived the previous night to claim their spot for a chance to see the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics deliver mass.

"It's the achievement of a Christian lifetime. When I was little, I thought you couldn't see the pope with your own two eyes," Marguerite Tedga, 72, said after waiting all night with friends from her parish on the esplanade outside the stadium.

The pope's landmark 11-day tour of Africa has seen him abandon his previous restraint to deliver impassioned pleas for world peace -- and tussle with fellow American Trump, after the US president lashed out at him for calling for an end to the war in the Middle East.

"The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants," Leo said Thursday in a solemn speech at Saint Joseph's Cathedral in the city of Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon, the epicentre of a nearly decade-long separatist insurgency that has killed thousands of people.

Trump later said the pope could say what he liked, but needed to understand the realities of a "nasty world".

Far from the Trump spat, Leo has been greeted by adoring, singing-and-dancing crowds wherever he goes in Cameroon.

Douala's 50,000-seater Japoma Stadium is expected to be packed for his mass at 11:00 am (1000 GMT), before a visit to the Saint Paul's Catholic hospital.

Marcianus Nzegge, 36, who drove for four hours to attend the Douala mass from the conflict-hit English-speaking region, said he was touched by the pope's message of peace.

But some Cameroonian Catholics had feared that Leo's visit could help President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1982, burnish his image.

Douala, one of central Africa's largest ports, was among the cities to see a violent crackdown on demonstrations against the re-election in October of a man who at 93 years of age is already the world's oldest head of state.

Witnesses have reported that the security forces fired live rounds into the crowds. The authorities have acknowledged dozens of deaths, without giving a precise toll.

- No to 'plunder' -

Without mentioning Trump or Biya by name, Leo has delivered unusually pointed speeches across his African tour -- ignoring Catholic US Vice President JD Vance's call to "stick to matters of morality".

"Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth," Leo said in Bamenda.

In a mass on Thursday, he also criticised "those who, in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it".

Cameroon is rich in natural resources such as oil, timber, cocoa, coffee and minerals, which have attracted both foreign firms and local elites for decades.

After arriving in the country on Wednesday, the pope urged Cameroon's leaders to root out corruption and abuses carried out in the name of order -- within Biya's earshot.

"Security is a priority, but it must always be exercised with respect for human rights," the pope told officials in the capital Yaounde.

Ahead of the visit, the Archbishop of Douala, Samuel Kleda -- one of the foremost critics of Biya within the Cameroonian clergy -- voiced hope that the pontiff's visit would help resolve the country's issues.

"Our country has gone through many crises; some crises are still ongoing. The fruit we must draw from this visit is to commit ourselves as architects of peace," Kleda said.

The Catholic Church plays an important social role in Cameroon, where more than a third of the population of 30 million people are Catholic.

He leaves Cameroon after a final mass Saturday, headed for Angola before wrapping up his whirlwind 18,000-kilometre (11,200-mile) tour in Equatorial Guinea.

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V.Handa--BD