Pope Leo has visited one of Equatorial Guinea’s most notorious prisons, criticising conditions for inmates as his four-nation Africa tour headed towards a close.

The head of the Catholic Church on Wednesday told inmates at the prison in Bata city that they are not alone, as he delivered a message of hope during a visit that drew attention to human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years.

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“The administration of justice aims to protect society,” the United States-born pontiff, 70, told the 600 detainees, including about 30 women. “To be effective, however, it must always promote the dignity of every person.”

Dressed in bright orange or khaki-green uniforms, the inmates — most of them young men — all had shaved heads and wore plastic sandals on their feet. Some wore face masks.

Leo listened to several testimonies from prisoners who had gathered in a yard inside the facility. As he made remarks, it began to rain, but the detainees remained standing outside.

The pope also reminded authorities that justice is meant to protect society, but that incarceration is not meant to be punishment alone. “True justice seeks not so much to punish as to help rebuild the lives of victims, offenders and communities wounded by evil,” he said.

In a 2023 report, the US Department of State documented cases of torture, extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions in Equatorial Guinea’s prisons.

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‘Greater room for freedom’

Pope Leo was on the 10th day of his African tour, following a packed schedule that began with a mass in Mongomo, near the border with Gabon.

During the service, with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the congregation, the Catholic leader called for “greater room for freedom” and for human dignity to be safeguarded.

Obiang, 83, who has been in power in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea since 1979, is the world’s longest-serving head of state who is not a monarch, and has regularly been accused of rights abuses.

“My thoughts go to the poorest, to families experiencing difficulty, and to prisoners who are often forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions,” the pope added.

He asked that “every effort” be made to allow detainees the opportunity to study and work during their confinement.

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

A group of 70 NGOs published an open letter on Monday calling on Leo to push for “fair, humane and lawful treatment” of the deportees, saying they were being pressured to return to their home countries.