The Central African nation of 28.5 million (map) is 61% Christian (and 29% Catholic), 20% Muslim, and 18% ethnic religionist.

The consecration of the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the bishops’ national pilgrimage and prayer for peace, took place against the backdrop of the Anglophone crisis, which has displaced 700,000 people.

“Today the bishops of Cameroon are making a national pilgrimage, with their faithful, to the Marian shrine of Marianberg, to reconsecrate the country to the Mother of God and to place it under her protection,” Pope Francis said on April 24. “I pray in particular for the return of peace to their country, which has been ravaged by violence in various regions for more than five years. Let us too raise our prayer, along with our brothers and sisters of Cameroon, that God may soon, by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, grant true and lasting peace to this beloved country.”