DOUALA, Cameroon (AP) — Thousands of people turned out Friday to see Pope Leo XIV, who was celebrating a big Mass in Cameroon's port city and then was to visit the country’s Catholic university on a day focused on encouraging young people.

Leo travelled to Douala, the commercial and economic capital of Cameroon, to celebrate Mass. The Vatican predicted some 600,000 people would turn out for the liturgy, the biggest crowd Leo is expected to draw on his 11-day, four-nation trip, the first to Africa by history's first American pope.

With an hour to go before the liturgy got underway, the big field in front of the Japoma sports stadium was bursting with people singing and dancing as an announcer shouted “Habemus Papam!” (We have a pope!). The Latin phrase is used to announce the election of a new pope but in this case joyfully announced Leo's arrival.

The crowd cheered when Leo emerged in his open-sided popemobile, with waves of young people running alongside him trying to keep up, as he looped through the crowd. Some had spent the night on the ground, battling mosquitos, to be in place for the late morning Mass, but said they were willing to make the sacrifice for the pope.

“I wanted to offer this effort to the pope, to show him that what he is doing and what he wants to accomplish should truly come to life,” said Alex Nzumo.

Later Friday, Leo has an appointment back in the capital, Yaounde, with students, professors and administrators at the Catholic University of Central Africa. Popes have often used such encounters, especially in the developing world, to rally young people to persevere in the face of poverty, corruption and other challenges.

With a population of 29 million, Cameroon is an overwhelmingly young country, where the median age is 18. Catholics represent about 29% of the population, and the country is a major source of growth and priestly vocations for the church.

Attention to young people

Leo has already offered words of encouragement to Cameroon’s youth, including in his opening speech to President Paul Biya — at 93 the world’s oldest leader. In the speech, Leo demanded the “chains of corruption” in Cameroon be broken and said Cameroon’s youth represent the future and hope of the country.

But with Biya in power since 1982, Cameroon perhaps represents the most dramatic example of the tension between Africa’s youth and the continent’s many aging leaders.

Despite being an oil-producing country experiencing modest economic growth, young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites.

“Of course, when unemployment and social exclusion persist, frustration can lead to violence," Leo warned in his opening address to Biya and government authorities earlier this week. "Investing in the education, training, and entrepreneurship of young people is, therefore, a strategic choice for peace. It is the only way to curb the outflow of wonderful talent to other parts of the world.”

According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate in Cameroon stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment.

The dire economic outlook in Cameroon has led to significant brain drain and has strained an already understaffed health sector, as many doctors and nurses are leaving the country for more lucrative jobs in Europe and North America.

In 2023, about a third of doctors who graduated from medical school in Cameroon left the country, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Growing frustration over Biya’s record and long-term rule intensified during last October’s tense presidential election, in which Biya secured an eighth consecutive term.

When Cameroon’s main opposition candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, contested the result of the poll, deadly protests erupted throughout the country.

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Mark Banchereau contributed from Dakar, Senegal.

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