Spain will deploy more than 13,000 police officers to stave off “Multiple” potential threats to Pope Leo XIV’s visit from June 6 to 12, the interior minister said on Monday.

The pope is due to draw huge crowds in the historically deeply Catholic nation when he travels to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that the highest level of a special security plan would be activated throughout the visit, the first by a pope to Spain since 2011.

More than 11,000 police officers and 2,200 Civil Guards would be deployed, while the contribution of additional local forces in the northeastern region of Catalonia that includes Barcelona was to be established, Marlaska added.

Marlaska reeled off a list of “multiple” potential threats, including terrorism, “but also radicalism, other movements such as social movements, which may naturally seize the opportunity to make themselves heard”.

After staying in the capital, Leo will inaugurate the newest and tallest tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia Basilica, 100 years since the death of its Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

The Catholic Church declared Gaudi “venerable” in 2025 — the first step on the path to sainthood.

The American pope will then travel to the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa that is a major route for Europe-bound migrants.

Leo is a vocal defender of migrants, an issue which was also dear to his predecessor Pope Francis.

The fact that the visit “takes place in different territories obviously creates greater complexity for ensuring that it unfolds normally”, as all locations are “very different”, Marlaska said.

Simultaneous major events, such as a series of concerts in Madrid by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, “do not make it easy”, but Spain “has the resources” to secure all the sites, Marlaska said.

The Ivorian government announced a 25 per cent reduction in passenger and security charges for flights within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Three decrees were adopted to reduce and standardise passenger, security and safety charges for domestic flights, flights within Africa and international flights outside Africa, a government statement said.

According to the statement, the measure is designed to reduce the high cost of air travel, which has often included taxes making up over 60 per cent of total ticket prices.

It also intended to align Cote d’Ivoire’s strategy to boost the competitiveness of national carrier Air Cote d’Ivoire and its public airports with the ECOWAS common aviation charges.

This initiative is an ECOWAS-wide directive aimed at fostering economic integration, trade, and tourism across West Africa, the statement said. 

France has urged its citizens to leave Mali “as soon as possible”, after a weekend of co-ordinated attacks by separatist fighters and Islamist militants.

In an update on Wednesday, the advice also warned French citizens not to travel to the West African nation, describing the situation as “extremely volatile”.

Explosions and sustained gunfire were reported across the country, including the capital, Bamako on Saturday.

Mali’s military leader Gen Assimi Goïta said the security situation in the country was under control.

Speaking in public for the first time on Tuesday evening, he said the army had dealt a “violent blow” to the attackers, and signalled operations were still ongoing.

The spokesperson for one of the rebel groups, the ethnic Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), on Wednesday vowed “the regime will fall, sooner or later”.

Speaking during a visit to Paris, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said the rebels intended to take control of several other northern towns – Gao, Timbuktu and Menaka – following their success in Kidal.