“The administration of justice aims to protect society, but to be effective, it must always focus on the dignity and potential of each person,” said the sovereign pontiff on Wednesday in front of the 600 inmates in the prison of Bata, the largest city in Equatorial Guinea.

Published on: 04/22/2026 - 22:56

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Pope Leo

In the prison courtyard, whose freshly painted salmon pink walls are topped with barbed wire, inmates sang and danced in the pouring rain and in a cleverly orchestrated setting, lined up facing the American pope.

“The administration of justice aims to protect society, but to be effective, it must always focus on the dignity and potential of each person,” said Leo XIV in front of the 600 inmates in the prison, including around thirty women.

Dressed in bright orange or khaki green outfits, the detainees, mostly young men, all had shaved heads and wore plastic sandals on their feet. Some had a mask on their face.

See alsoPope Leo XIV continues his African tour in Equatorial Guinea

The red carpet, the stage, the Vatican flags and the speakers spewing out festive music reflected the efforts of the authorities to give the best possible image of this center, despite harsh criticism from NGOs on the alarming conditions of detention in this Spanish-speaking country of two million inhabitants.

A few seconds after the Pope's arrival, a deluge of rain fell in the prison courtyard. At the end of the meeting, the detainees exploded into a collective movement of joy and dance, chanting “Libertad” (“freedom”, in French).

In a 2023 report, the US State Department reported cases of torture, extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions in Equatoguinean prisons.

Despite their diplomatic tone, the sovereign pontiff's statements represent a very rare denunciation in this country which is highly controlled and criticized for its attacks on freedom of expression.

“Worrying hygiene and health conditions”

For this tenth day of his frenetic tour of Africa, the pope first celebrated a mass in front of nearly 100,000 faithful in Mongomo, stronghold of the presidential clan located on the border with Gabon.

In the presence of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 83, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1979, the Pope called for "spaces of freedom to increase, for the dignity of the human person to always be preserved." “I think of the prisoners, often forced to live in worrying conditions of hygiene and health,” he added.

“Will this change the administration of justice in our country?” reacted an Equatorial Guinean teacher on condition of anonymity, criticizing the “lack of independence” of a justice system “marked by the corruption of judges and magistrates”.

In this secular country which has 80% Catholics, the head of the Catholic Church must maintain a delicate diplomatic balance: supporting the faithful without being seen as supporting power.

Expected on the sensitive grounds of political pluralism and public freedoms, Leo

18,000 km journey

Equatorial Guinea has grown considerably richer since the discovery of large oil deposits in the early 1990s. Hydrocarbon production represented 46.1% of its GDP in 2024, according to the African Development Bank.

But “oil revenues finance lavish lifestyles for the small elite surrounding the president, while a large part of the population lives in poverty,” estimates the NGO Human Rights Watch.

See alsoPope Leo XIV in Africa: Rome facing the growing weight of African Catholicism

Since the start of his 11-day marathon tour of four African countries, the pope has held masses, speeches, flights, meetings, ceremonies and crowds in stifling tropical heat.

After an 18,000 km journey that began in Algeria and continued in Cameroon and Angola, the pope will end his tour on Thursday with an open-air mass at the Malabo stadium, before returning to Rome.

With AFP

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