APTOPIX Equatorial Guinea Africa Pope

Pope Leo XIV meets with representatives of the world of culture at the Leon XIV Campus of the National University in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, on the ninth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa.

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Pope criticizes colonization of Africa's minerals as he arrives in Equatorial Guinea

Pope criticizes colonization of Africa's minerals as he arrives in Equatorial Guinea

Pope Leo XIV has denounced the “colonization” of minerals and the “lust for power” in Equatorial Guinea at the end of his four-nation African trip. The country's repressive leader has been in office since 1979. Crowds in the largely Catholic country lined the road from the airport on Tuesday, cheering the first pope to visit since St. John Paul II in 1982. The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is one of the countries on the continent that's been paid millions of dollars in deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S.