{"id":745394,"date":"2026-04-22T13:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/745394\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:09:16","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-to-visit-equatorial-guinea-prison-on-final-leg-of-africa-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/745394\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV to visit Equatorial Guinea prison on final leg of Africa tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONGOMO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV<\/a> urged Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday to work for justice and to close the gap \u201cbetween the privileged and the disadvantaged\u201d as he opened a day drawing attention to the vast income inequalities and human rights abuses in the Central African country.<\/p>\n

Leo began the day with Mass in Mongomo, an eastern city on the border with Gabon that has experienced major development since Equatorial Guinea\u2019s oil boom in the 1990s. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism in his four-decade rule, comes from Mongomo and the city has benefited from government investment and infrastructure, even though no official institutions are located here. <\/p>\n

While more than half of Equatorial Guinea\u2019s population lives in poverty, Mongomo boasts opulent buildings, curated gardens behind gilt-tipped gates, an 18-hole golf course and is the starting point of the lone highway in the country, linking the city to Bata on the west coast.<\/p>\n

Obiang and his wife were on hand for Leo\u2019s Mass, as was their son, Teodoro \u201cTeddy\u201d Nguema Obiang, the country\u2019s vice president who was convicted of embezzling<\/a> millions of euros by a French court, which handed him a three-year suspended sentence, a 30 million euro ($35.2 million) fine and ordered the seizure of his luxury homes and cars in France worth tens of millions of euros. The country has protested the seizures<\/a> at the International Court of Justice.<\/p>\n

Last year, the United States gave the younger Obiang a temporary waiver on U.S. corruption sanctions so he could travel to a U.N. gathering and visit other American cities. Obiang also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. <\/p>\n

The Vatican said an estimated 100,000 people attended the Mass, most standing in the grand entryway to Mongomo\u2019s Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The monumental church was consecrated in 2011 and is modeled on St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Before Mass, Leo greeted the crowd and the presidential family. With the Obiangs by his side, he blessed the cornerstone of a future cathedral to be built in the country\u2019s new capital, Ciudad de la Paz, or City of Peace.<\/p>\n

In his homily, Leo urged all citizens to work together to build a society \u201ccapable of engendering a new sense of justice,\u201d where there is \u201cgreater room for freedom\u201d and where \u201cthe dignity of the human person always may be safeguarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged everyone, according to their roles, to work to \u201cserve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Later in the day he was to visit a prison in the port city of Bata, continuing the tradition of Pope Francis, who made such visits a priority of his pontificate<\/a>. Francis\u2019 aim was to give prisoners hope and to remind them the church was with them, while also shining a spotlight on judicial abuses, overcrowding and other injustices.<\/p>\n

Judicial abuses documented<\/p>\n

Equatorial Guinea\u2019s prisons and justice system overall have been repeatedly faulted by the U.N. and condemned by human rights groups and the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n

In its 2023 report on the country, the U.S. listed a host of abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful killings and arrests, political detentions, torture, life-threatening prison conditions and \u201cserious problems\u201d with the independence of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmnesty International has serious concerns about the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea,\u201d said Marta Colomer Aguilera, senior campaigner at Amnesty\u2019s West and Central Africa office.<\/p>\n

She said torture had been used to extract confessions or to punish, human rights defenders are harassed, and the lack of judicial independence compromised the right to a fair trial. <\/p>\n

Obiang has been in power in Equatorial Guinea since 1979.<\/p>\n

After sanctions were lifted on the younger Obiang, it emerged that Equatorial Guinea was one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration<\/a> to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.<\/p>\n

Reporting by The Associated Press<\/a> shows that at least 29 such migrants with no ties to the country <\/a> have been deported here. They were not sent to the prison in Bata. Some remain in detention in the city of Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical support, while others have been forcibly returned to their countries where they face persecution. <\/p>\n

The government has denied rights abuses and hasn\u2019t commented when asked to respond to questions about abuses involving the U.S. migration deportation deal.<\/p>\n

Leo has criticized the Trump administration\u2019s overall migration deportation policy as \u201cextremely disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Very troubling disregard for human life\u2019<\/p>\n

On the eve of his prison visit, 70 human rights organizations published an open letter to Leo, urging him to speak out especially about U.S. deportation of migrants here and encourage African nations to not be complicit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese practices circumvent humanitarian protections, expose refugees to detention and coercion, and subject individuals to refoulement, in direct contravention of international law,\u201d they wrote, referring to the legal concept that prohibits countries from sending people to places where their lives or freedoms are at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions under which these deportations have been carried out have also reflected a very troubling disregard for human life and safety. We call for the intercession of Pope Leo XIV to discourage African countries from being complicit in these violations and instead to protect these individuals,\u201d the groups said.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to Leo\u2019s arrival, the government released nearly 100 people who had been arrested in a 2022 crackdown on street violence, according to a local lawyer, who requested anonymity given the country\u2019s human rights record.<\/p>\n

The lawyer termed the releases one \u201cpositive outcome\u201d of the visit, though the lawyer noted that the government still hasn\u2019t taken action on releasing politicians such as Gabriel Ns\u00e9 Obiang, who has been in jail since 2022 preelection unrest, or activists including Anacleto Micha or Joaquin Elo Ayeto.<\/p>\n

EG Justice, a rights group which has repeatedly denounced the detention of political prisoners in Equatorial Guinea, urged Leo to use his moral authority to speak out about abuses and the detention of activists and politicians especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are individuals \u2014 prisoners of conscience, and human rights activists \u2014 in detention whose cases raise serious humanitarian and due process concerns,\u201d said Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice group. \u201cAt moments like this, sentence review and a real commitment to reform the judiciary can send a powerful signal of a willingness to turn a page toward justice and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP writer Monika Pronczuk contributed from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONGOMO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV urged Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday to work for justice and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":745395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[105187,3881,119771,17628,356,69,37326,122202,181111,307065,57,118,76602,409,307063,307064,50,80,3417,2938,365,16816,45887,1206,370,103,107],"class_list":["post-745394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-amnesty-international","tag-ap-top-news","tag-christopher-landau","tag-corruption","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-embezzlement","tag-equatorial-guinea","tag-gabon","tag-gabriel-ns-obiang","tag-general-news","tag-human-rights","tag-immigrant-detention","tag-immigration","tag-joaquin-elo-ayeto","tag-marta-colomer-aguilera","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-prisons","tag-religion","tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","tag-teodoro-obiang-nguema-mbasogo","tag-united-nations","tag-united-states-government","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116448524481702763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}