Pope Leo XIV heads Tuesday to Equatorial Guinea for the final leg of his four-nation African journey, arriving in a country that presents perhaps the most diplomatically delicate challenge of this trip and his young papacy.

Pope Leo XIV told inmates at one of Equatorial Guinea’s notorious prisons on Wednesday that they are not alone as he drew attention to prison conditions, human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years here.

Pope Leo XIV has been traveling around the African continent and strengthening the Catholic church's presence there. It's a region with one of the fastest growing Catholic populations in the world. Josh Sanders has more from the Pulse Desk.

Students in Equatorial Guinea sang and waved flags ahead of a visit by Pope Leo at a university in Malabo on Tuesday (April 21) during his four-nation Africa trip.

Pope Leo XIV arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday on the fourth and final leg of his Africa journey, and denounced the “colonization” of Africa's minerals and the “lust for power” in a country whose repressive leader has been in office since 1979.

Pope Leo used the last full ⁠day ⁠of his four-nation Africa tour on Wednesday to ⁠speak out against wealth inequality, urging believers to work to bridge the gap between rich and poor ​as he traversed oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Pope Leo warned on Tuesday that humanity's future is at risk of being "tragically compromised" because of ongoing wars and ‌a breakdown of international law, in a forceful speech in Equatorial Guinea on his four-nation Africa tour.

Pope Leo XIV held Mass in the eastern Equatorial Guinea city of Mongomo on Wednesday as he continued his visit to the country and his African tour.