VATICAN CITY, April 10 -- Leo XIV will become the first pope to visit Algeria on Monday, taking a message of dialogue with Islam on a trip that also represents a personal pilgrimage for the American pontiff.

Algeria is the first stop on an 11-day tour of four African nations, covering 18,000 kilometres and also taking in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13 to 23.

No other pontiff has visited Algeria, a North African country where Islam is the state religion, and the 70-year-old's arrival is being eagerly awaited by the Catholic minority.

The visit also holds a strong personal dimension for Pope Leo, as modern-day Algeria was home to Saint Augustine (354-430), a great Christian theologian whose spiritual legacy permeate...