Pope tells prisoners in Equatorial Guinea ‘you are not alone’ | World News

Pope Leo’s four-nation Africa tour has pushed towards ​a dramatic close, with the pontiff braving a heavy rainstorm to greet prisoners in Equatorial Guinea.

He told inmates they are not alone, as he delivered a message of hope during a visit that highlighted prison conditions, human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have criticised for years.

“You are not alone. Your families love you and are waiting for you. Many people outside these walls are praying for you,” the Pope told the inmates in Spanish at the facility in the port city of Bata, ahead of the tour’s close on Thursday.

The prisoners, all dressed in neon orange and beige uniforms, had gathered in a central courtyard.

As soon as he began speaking, a massive rainstorm set in, drenching the inmates.

Prisoners at the facility are regularly detained for years without access to lawyers, Amnesty International says, but Equatorial Guinea has long dismissed accusations of human rights abuses.

In his remarks, the Pope also reminded authorities that justice is meant to protect society, but that imprisonment is not meant to be punishment alone.

“To be effective, it must always promote the dignity and potential of every person,” he said. “True justice seeks not so much to punish as to help rebuild the lives of victims, offenders and communities wounded by evil.”

After the Pope left, the soaked inmates broke into an energetic dance party in the courtyard in the rain, shouting “Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!” (Freedom, freedom, freedom).

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The Vatican said roughly 100,000 people had gathered inside and outside the basilica to see the Pope on Wednesday, huddled around a colonnade modelled on St ​Peter’s Square in Rome.

As his white popemobile arrived, many in attendance danced and screamed.

Gold, white, green and red smoke filled the air, ​reflecting the colours ⁠of the Vatican and Equatorial Guinea flags.

The Pope started the day with mass in Mongomo, an eastern city on the border with Gabon that has undergone major development since the 1990s oil boom in Equatorial Guinea.

The tour took on further significance after it emerged that Equatorial Guinea was one of several African nations that have been paid millions of dollars in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the US to nations other than their own.

While none of those migrants are being held at Bata, the visit also highlighted Equatorial Guinea’s overall human rights record and its judiciary, which rights campaigners have criticised for its lack of independence, arbitrary detentions and other abuses.

Leo, the first US Pope, who has debuted a forceful new speaking style while in Africa, started the day by denouncing wealth inequality during a mass in the largest religious structure in ​Central Africa, a church in the town of Mongomo, located at the edge of the Congo Basin rainforest.

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.

The Pope has traversed nearly 18,000 km (11,185 miles) across 18 flights ​to 11 cities in four countries in one of the most complex overseas tours ever arranged for a pontiff.