Pope Leo XIV visits Bata prison in Equatorial Guinea

Pope Leo XIV visited one of Equatorial Guinea's most notorious prisons Wednesday in Bata, the central African nation's most populous coastal city, drawing attention to long-documented human rights abuses that have intensified since the United States began deporting third-country migrants to the country. The visit marked the final full day of the pontiff's marathon 11-day, four-nation African tour that took him from Algeria in the north to Angola in the south, with Cameroon in between, continuing the prison visit tradition established by Pope Francis aimed at offering hope to inmates and spotlighting judicial abuses, overcrowding and other injustices. Equatorial Guinea, led by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who has been in power since 1979, has repeatedly been condemned by the U.N., human rights groups and the U.S. State Department for documented abuses including arbitrary killings, political detentions, torture, life-threatening prison conditions and serious problems with judicial independence. The country has also received millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to accept migrants deported from the U.S. to nations other than their own, with AP reporting showing at least 29 migrants with no ties to Equatorial Guinea have been deported here under such arrangements. The U.S.-born pope has criticized the administration's overall migration deportation policy as "extremely disrespectful," and on the eve of his prison visit, 70 human rights organizations published an open letter urging him to speak out about the deportation practices and encourage African nations not to be complicit in what they called violations of international law.