BATA: Pope Leo used the last full day of his four-nation Africa tour on Wednesday to speak out against wealth inequality, urging believers to work to bridge the gap between rich and poor as he traversed oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Leo, who has attracted the ire of US President Donald Trump after bec­o­­ming more outspoken against war and despotism, was also due to visit a high-security pris­­on that human rights groups say holds political prisoners in abusive conditions.

Equatorial Guinea, run since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving president, has been widely derided as one of the most repressive countries in the region, though it has enjoyed warm ties with the US in part because of its oil riches.

Most recently Obiang’s government struck a deal with the Trump administration to accept deportees from other countries, one in a series of such arrangements in Africa that have drawn criticism from immigration lawyers and advocates.

The 70-year-old pontiff, who was flying about 700 km (435 miles) across Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday to visit three cities, opened his day with an event in Mongomo, on the eastern border with Gabon on the edge of the Congo Basin rainforest.

During a Mass in the largest religious structure in Central Africa, Leo urged Equatorial Guineans “to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.” The pope, who has debuted a forceful new speaking style during the Africa tour, also decried poor treatment of “prisoners who are often forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions”.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2026