Pope Leo Condemns Inequality and Corruption in Oil-Rich Equatorial Guinea

Pontiff Calls for Justice as President and Family Look On During African Tour
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Pope Leo delivered a pointed message of social justice and economic equality during a Mass in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, using the occasion to call out the stark inequalities that persist in one of sub-Saharan Africa’s wealthiest yet most unequal nations — all while the country’s longtime president and his family sat in attendance.
The pontiff, continuing his tour of the African continent, used his address to urge those in power to pursue greater justice for ordinary citizens, calling for an end to the corruption and economic disparity that has long defined life in Equatorial Guinea despite the country’s substantial oil revenues.
Equatorial Guinea presents one of Africa’s most glaring contradictions. The small Central African nation possesses significant offshore oil wealth that has made it one of the continent’s highest earners in per capita GDP terms on paper. Yet the vast majority of its population lives in poverty, with wealth concentrated almost entirely among the ruling elite. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, one of the world’s longest-serving heads of state, has ruled the country for over four decades and his government has faced persistent accusations of corruption, nepotism, and human rights abuses.
That Pope Leo chose to deliver such a direct and unambiguous call for justice in the physical presence of the president and his family has been widely interpreted as a deliberate and courageous act of moral leadership — a signal that the Church will not remain silent in the face of institutionalised inequality, regardless of the political sensitivities involved.
The visit is part of a broader papal tour of Africa aimed at strengthening the Church’s ties with the continent’s rapidly growing Catholic communities while also amplifying the voices of the marginalised and the poor.