Pope Leo XIV condemned the “colonisation” of Africa’s mineral resources and the “lust for power” on Tuesday as he arrived in Equatorial Guinea, a country ruled by the continent’s longest-serving president who has been accused of widespread corruption.
The pontiff arrived in the capital Malabo, for the fourth and final stop of his African tour, where crowds waited at the airport and lined the road to welcome the first pontiff to visit their country since Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Pope Leo XIV arrived at the presidential palace in an open papal motorcade to the delight of cheering, flag-waving faithful.
“We are very happy now, we have waited 44 years for the arrival of the pope. It is a blessing for the country. We hope that many things will change and our faith will deepen,” said Diosdado Marques, a senior Catholic official in the country.
The former Spanish colony on Africa’s west coast is ruled by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979. He has been accused of widespread corruption and authoritarian politics.
The discovery of offshore oil deposits in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy: oil now accounts for nearly half of GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank. Yet more than half of the country’s nearly two million people live in poverty.
Human Rights Watch and French and Spanish court cases have documented that the revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the wider population.
Pontiff quotes Pope Francis on anniversary of his death
Pope Leo XIV, who arrived from Angola, met Obiang at the presidential palace and addressed government officials, diplomats and parliamentarians.
Noting that the meeting took place on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’s death, he condemned income inequality, which he said was made worse by a global economy that seeks profit at all costs, quoting the late pope.
“Such an economy kills,” Pope Leo XIV said. “In fact, it is even more evident today than in previous years that the outbreak of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonisation of oil and mineral resources, without respect for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”
The Trump administration, which has announced the creation of a mineral trade bloc with its allies, is racing to gain access to critical mineral-rich regions of Africa and to defeat China in a region long dominated by Beijing.
Last year, when Washington became a key broker in a peace deal to end fighting in Congo’s mineral-rich but conflict-ridden eastern region, it also signed a partnership agreement with Congo that would give US companies access to critical minerals.
The US is also investing in the Lobito Corridor, a major rail project that would help export minerals from Zambia and Congo through Lobito to Angola. The US is also supporting a project in South Africa to extract rare earth minerals from industrial waste.
Church and government ‘closely intertwined’
Equatorial Guinea is officially a secular country, but about 75% of its population is Catholic, making it one of the most Catholic countries in Africa.
Church leaders are “closely intertwined with the government”, said Tutu Alicante, a US-based activist who heads the rights group EG Justice.
“Partly because of the fear the government has of everyone, including the church, and partly because of the financial benefits the church gets from this government.”
Reverent Fortunatus Nwachukwu, number two of the Vatican’s Office for Missionary Evangelisation, said the Catholic Church is present in difficult civil spaces and knows how to operate there to fulfil its mission.
“Should the Church go to war against the government? Certainly not,” Nwachukwu said. “Should the church swallow everything as if it is normal? No. The church should continue to preach justice, always in defence of life, human dignity and the common good.”
In addition to official corruption, the government is accused of harassment, arrests and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.
Equatorial Guinea is one of several African countries that have received millions of dollars under agreements with the Trump administration to take in migrants deported from the US to countries outside their own.
According to AP, at least 29 of these migrants, who have no ties to the country, have been deported there from the US. Some are still being held in Malabo with restrictions on legal and medical assistance, while others have been forcibly returned to their home countries where they face persecution.
Pope Leo XIV, who is visiting a prison in the port city of Bata, called the Trump administration’s overall migration and deportation policy “extremely disrespectful”.