Pope Leo visits prison in Equatorial Guinea on last day in Africa

Pope Leo's four-nation Africa tour headed towards a dramatic close on Wednesday (April 22), with the pontiff speaking at Equatorial Guinea prison.

Widely derided as one of the most repressive countries in the region, Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea has been run since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world's longest-serving president. It has enjoyed warm ties with the U.S. in part because of its oil riches.

Leo visited a prison in the city of Bata, a facility where detainees are regularly held for years without access to lawyers, Amnesty International says.

Leo listened to several testimonies from prisoners gathered in a yard inside the facility. Detainees later sang and danced as the pope looked on, before rain began to fall during his remarks. Despite the downpour, prisoners remained standing outside.

Leo, who is the first pope to visit the country since 1982, is at the end of one of the most complicated overseas tours ever arranged for a pontiff. He has traversed nearly 18,000 km (11,185 miles) across 18 flights to 11 cities in four countries.

The pope also prayed on Wednesday at the site of a series of explosions in 2021 at a military barracks in Bata that killed more than 100 people, which the government blamed on poor storage of ordnance.

Human rights activists have called for an independent investigation into the incident, so far in vain.

-Antonio Denti, Yesim Dikmen, Jose Pablo Diaz/Reuters